Fragments
by Cybra
Summary: With an upgrade of the tower scan, Jeremy can now live on Earth with his human friends as they search for an antivirus, but flashbacks from nowhere haunt the AI as XANA tries to steal his memories. Set in the Switch universe.
1. Welcome to Carthage

Fragments  
By Cybra

**Special Thanks:** To Mika Ryoko San for providing a name for this series and for being patient with me for getting it out. Also to Son Neko who drew not just scenes from the original "Switch" but also provided a great model sheet for switch!Jeremy.

**A/N:** I admit that a lot of these episodes will be based upon episodes from Season 2. Those that are will be marked below the "episode title". However, I'll also try to give you some fresh storylines that weren't seen in Season 2. Also, there will be a few changes in continuity as time goes on.

**Disclaimer:** _Code Lyoko_ belongs to the French.

Welcome to Carthage  
_Based Upon "New Order" and "Uncharted Territory"_

A blond cheetah sped across the landscape of the Desert Region, fleeing the sounds of battle behind him.

"Aelita, I'm almost to the tower!"

"Good because we're one tarantula down, and Yumi's already been de-virtualized." A pause. "Hornets coming in at one o'clock high!"

Jeremy glanced in the specified direction. "I see them."

The cheetah picked up the pace, zigzagging as lasers struck the ground.

"The remaining tarantula has been destroyed, and Odd and Ulrich have been de-virtualized!"

"Don't worry. I can handle hornets."

He shifted to the slower but more nimble coyote, running towards a rock formation. Easily climbing it in leaps and bounds, he leapt off, shifting to falcon.

He zoomed away from the deactivated tower, pumping his thin wings for height. He heard the hornets pursue.

"Jeremy, what're you doing?!"

"Just trust me, okay?"

He wheeled about and brought his wings close to his sides. Gravity took hold, turning his height into speed as he aimed for the tower. He fisted his talons.

The middle hornet exploded as he struck the XANA symbol dead center. The hit threw off his trajectory a little, but he easily corrected it as he sped on his way.

"Nice shot! The other two hornets are turning to pursue."

'_Too little too late,'_ Jeremy thought as he shifted to human in midair, allowing his momentum to hurl him through the side of the tower.

He landed in a crouch on the lower platform before standing and allowing a stream of data to carry him to the platform above. _'Just once I'd like to pull off that move and land up top.'_

"I'm in position," he told Aelita.

"I'm bringing you in. Code: Earth."

The faint sensation of data streams interacting with his code. He leaned his head back and spread his arms as he hovered above the platform.

Then Lyoko vanished.

* * *

The four humans watched their virtual friend exit the elevator. 

"Way to go, Jeremy!" Odd praised, walking over and slinging an arm around the other blond's neck. "That hornet didn't know what hit him!"

"Thanks, Odd."

"Where did you learn that trick?" Ulrich asked, impressed.

Jeremy shrugged modestly. "Practice. It rarely works if XANA's awake though. And I doubt the tarantulas would be fooled even while XANA's asleep."

Aelita nodded. XANA's latest monsters were a pain in the neck and scarily intelligent. At least XANA hadn't upgraded its old monsters.

Yet.

Mentally shaking the thought from her mind, she said, "Well, you won't have to worry about dodging tarantulas between attacks for much longer."

The virtual boy looked around at the grinning faces of his friends. He asked, "Why? What's going on?"

Aelita couldn't stop smiling. "Between working on the vehicles and the antivirus, I upgraded the tower scan. Much more accurate than the old one and able to alert us when a tower's been activated."

His blue eyes widened. The only reason he stayed on Lyoko was to keep an eye on XANA.

The pink-haired girl smiled a little wider as Yumi said, "We've registered you as a boarder at Kadic Academy. You're staying on Earth with us."

"That's fantastic!" Jeremy cheered. "You guys are the greatest!"

Odd smirked. "I've never seen anyone so excited about going to school before."

* * *

"And this is your room…?" Jim's voice trailed off, silently asking for a name. 

"Jeremy Belpois," the new boy answered promptly, an eager smile on his face.

Jim returned that smile. "Well then. There are a couple of rules you should know. No one is allowed in the dorms during school hours. It's lights out at ten. And your friends della Robbia, Stern, and Stones can fill you in on the rest." The gym teacher scowled at where Jeremy knew his friends stood behind him. "That is if they can remember them!"

The virtual boy chewed the inside of his cheek in order to hold in his laughter.

"All right. I'll let you get settled in." The burly man left.

Jeremy turned back to his friends, hands still clutching the recently-bought suitcase. He asked, "Well…?"

"I don't think Jim suspects a thing. Nice going." Odd gave him a thumbs-up.

Aelita nodded. "I was a little afraid that he'd get suspicious since you showed up with so little stuff. What did you tell him, anyway?"

The blond grinned. "I told him that it was easier to get here with only the things I needed. Everything else I can buy in town or have mailed to me."

Despite the fact that Jeremy had no family and therefore no earthly possessions, there were a couple of boxes in the room containing some of the necessities of dorm life while running short on personal items.

Apparently, over the past few weeks, his four human friends had pooled their money in order to give him enough to look like a normal student. They'd even done a few odd jobs around the school for other students in order to augment their allowances. Jeremy felt humbled by how much they had worked just for him.

"Want some help getting set up?" Ulrich offered, obviously knowing that Lyoko's sole inhabitant had little idea about what he was doing.

"If you guys don't mind…" he said sheepishly.

"It's no problem. It's not like you have a lot of stuff."

His two male friends entered the room while Aelita gave a little wave and told them she'd wait with Yumi.

Jeremy gazed at Ulrich in confusion. "Is something wrong? Why'd she leave?"

Odd closed the door to his room as the brunette explained, "Considering that we're going to be explaining to you stuff that other people have known for years, we can't have anyone outside listening in."

"Okay…that explains the door. But why did she have to leave?"

He blinked as his friends gave each other these rather embarrassed looks.

Odd rubbed the back of his head. "Girls aren't allowed in guys' rooms with the door shut and visa versa."

Jeremy tilted his head to one side. "Why?"

The purple-clad boy coughed as the soccer star shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"Oh boy…" Odd muttered.

Ulrich stuttered, "Um…well…it's like this…"

* * *

"Any particular reason why those two are making tomatoes jealous?" Yumi asked the thoughtful Jeremy as the three boys walked up to the two girls. 

"Huh?" he asked, clearly not understanding the idiom.

"She means why are Odd and Ulrich blushing," Aelita translated with a giggle.

"I was curious as to why you had to leave when they shut the door."

Yumi and Aelita exchanged knowing smirks before laughing hysterically.

Somehow Odd and Ulrich managed to blush brighter shades of red.

The purple-clad boy protested, "Hey, it was embarrassing enough to begin with!"

Yumi leaned against Aelita while the shorter girl did the same to her, both trying to use the other to maintain balance. The virtual boy's confused face only served to make them laugh harder.

"If you two are _done…"_ Ulrich grumbled.

"Okay, okay," the Japanese girl gasped, still giggling a bit. "So is everything set up?"

Jeremy nodded. He then smiled gratefully. "Thanks a lot."

"It was worth it." Aelita gave him a hug which the blond returned.

"Yeah. We've been waiting a long time to have you here with us," the taller girl agreed with a grin.

Out of the corner of her eye, Yumi noted the irked look on Herve's face. She raised an eyebrow. While the black-haired nerd had always been obsessed with Sissi, he'd also maintained a crush on Aelita, possibly as shooting for the next best thing. Apparently, he didn't like the sudden competition that appeared from nowhere.

'_Tough luck, Herve,'_ she thought in his direction. _'Jeremy had you beat long ago.'_

"We better get to Chemistry. See you later, Yumi," the brunette boy said, cutting into her musings.

"Later."

* * *

"Now, who can tell me how many grams of carbon result from this chain reaction?" Mrs. Hertz glanced around the classroom. 

Her best pupil Herve could do it, but the new boy Jeremy Belpois was untested. He looked like he might know something on the subject, too!

"Jeremy?"

Predictably, Herve looked annoyed but smug as the poor blond frowned at her equations. Perhaps she'd only embarrassed him on his first day.

True, she could be cruel to slackers, but alert and attentive students who honestly _tried_ she gave what help she could. That was, after all, what teaching was all about.

"Did you want me to balance the equations first?" the boy with the strange target-like symbol on his sweater asked curiously.

The science teacher blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"Did you want me to balance the equations first?"

She stared for a moment before a laugh escaped her.

Jeremy slid down in his seat while Aelita reached out to pat him on the shoulder.

"No, no, you didn't do anything wrong!" she forced out, sliding off her glasses to clean them as she calmed herself down. "You simply jumped ahead of my lesson."

This was going to be a refreshing change of pace.

* * *

Looking up as he finished packing up, Jeremy blinked as Herve pointed in what he interpreted as a threatening manner at him. "Hi?" 

"Just who do you think you are, huh? Waltzin' in here and actin' like you're the smartest kid around!"

'_What did I do? I just answered Mrs. Hertz's question!'_ he mentally wailed. Aloud, he said, "I didn't mean to look like I thought that way…"

"Just shut up and play dumb then."

The blond's own temper suddenly flared. "I'm not gonna act stupid just so you can look good. I'm here to learn everything I can." He shut his mouth with an audible _click_ of teeth on the "about your world" that threatened to escape.

Herve didn't seem to notice. "Fine then. Welcome to Hell." And then he stormed off.

The materialized boy growled low in his throat, fervently wishing Shapeshift _did_ work here. Wouldn't Herve have been surprised if a lion suddenly appeared behind him and started to chase him around?

"Jeremy, c'mon! We're gonna be late to—What's wrong?"

The blond blinked and stared at the pink-haired girl he called his best friend before a sheepish smile crossed his face. "I…got in a fight with Herve."

The worried look left her face as she placed her hands on her hips and smiled at him. "Why am I not surprised? He was sending you death glares all through Chemistry."

"Death…glares…?"

"Death glares are…what we're gonna get if we don't get to History within the next thirty seconds! C'mon!"

He barely had the time to snatch up his book bag as she grabbed his wrist and quite literally dragged him behind her as she sprinted.

Fortunately, they made it to class with ten seconds to spare, reaching their seats just as the bell rang.

"Everyone, open your books to page 158. We'll be covering Hannibal and the Punic Wars."

Jeremy flipped open the book to a brightly-colored illustration of an elephant and an ancient warrior.

'_I've seen this picture before.'_

Suddenly, he was back at the Hermitage, back when it was still inhabited. He was sitting on the couch with a book in his hands, reading. There was the picture along with lots of text that he couldn't clearly see. Some of it had been printed in the book. Quite a bit more had been added later with red pen, circling passages and adding notes.

Someone called his name, and he looked up to see the bearded man with the glasses.

"Jeremy!"

He snapped to attention to realize he'd been hyperventilating in the middle of class. The teacher stood right next to him and was shaking his shoulder.

"Are you all right?" the man kindly asked.

The virtual boy nodded.

"Do you want to see the nurse?"

He vehemently shook his head. Not yet. He wasn't sure about whether or not there was something that would give the game away.

"All right then." And the teacher continued the lesson.

He glanced up at Aelita who gave him a look that clearly queried "What happened?"

"Later," he mouthed before returning to mechanically taking notes.

What had that strange vision been? A trick by XANA, sent through the virus that connected them? Or could it have been something long forgotten?

But he'd never lived on Earth. He'd never been to that house before the incident a little over a month ago.

Right?

* * *

"I'm going to the Hermitage. Something's weird about that house." 

Ulrich and Odd glanced at each other before looking at the pink-haired girl.

Odd asked, "Aren't you supposed to meet Jeremy for lunch?"

She sighed. "Yes, and I already feel rotten enough for skipping out, but that attack Jeremy had might've been one of his visions. Remember that one time by the grocery store?"

It had been during a free day when they'd been out walking around. Jeremy had frozen and started to hyperventilate. After snapping him out of it, he told them of walking with bags from that store towards the Hermitage with that strange man.

Images from somewhere. All weak. Like scenes from a long-ago silent movie.

And it had all started at that house.

"Yumi and I managed to get into the school archives. Hopper the deed owner and Hopper the teacher are one and the same."

"That explains the school passageways," Ulrich noted. "You think you'll find something at the house?"

"Hopefully. Jeremy seems to know it."

"Then we'll go with you," the cat warrior of Lyoko decided. "We'll be able to search three times as fast and get back before anyone misses us."

"Right," Aelita and Ulrich agreed just before the trio sprinted towards the woods.

* * *

They weren't coming. 

Jeremy tried to force himself not to feel disappointed. It wasn't the first time he'd awaited the arrival of someone and they didn't show. Only last time, he'd had no idea whom he'd been waiting _for._

A Japanese girl entered the lunchroom.

'_Yumi!'_ He opened his mouth to call her name.

However, William was quicker, and the pair walked through the line, chatting.

No. No, he wasn't going to intrude.

In fact, he suddenly didn't feel hungry anymore.

He exited the lunchroom to see a grinning Herve, the other boy's arms crossed across his chest.

"Enjoying your first day?"

Jeremy wasn't in the mood to rise to the bait; he just walked on by.

"Why don't you just go home? It's easier than trying to be something you're not."

The virtual boy stopped. Herve may not have realized it, but he'd hit a real sore spot. "Something…I'm not…"

"What?" the human demanded.

Jeremy ignored him. _'I'm a collection of computer data attempting to be human. My primary functions are to learn and interact with humans, not _be_ one.'_ He closed his eyes. _'I am not and cannot be human.'_

With that bit of logical reasoning, there was no reason for him to stay at Kadic.

He turned his head towards Herve. "You're right. I'm going home." At the other boy's look of surprise, he turned towards the woods. "Besides, I'm even more alone here than I was there."

And he walked away, ignoring Herve's sputtered "Fine! Uh, good riddance!"

* * *

Unaware of Jeremy's decision, Aelita entered the Hermitage with Odd and Ulrich just behind her. She paused in the doorway, one hand on her hip as she studied the house from this perspective. 

"The lock's been broken," Ulrich said, reaching around her to point. "Looks like it was done a while ago, too."

"Who'd go to all that trouble to get into this old place?" Odd muttered, rolling his eyes. "It's creepy _without_ the XANA-fication."

"Franz Hopper could've had enemies," the pink-haired girl reasoned. She stepped inside. "C'mon. Let's take a closer look."

The kitchen area proved useless. Not that they'd really expected to find anything there.

The family room was equally useless. Any electronics Hopper had owned were gone, either stolen or taken with him wherever he'd gone. However, their search did uncover a few broken, empty picture frames. All that remained of the photos they once held was a small corner that showed part of a child's arm. (Aelita left it as it was since there was no way to remove it without tearing it to pieces.)

The den was a treasure trove of books. Looters, apparently, cared little for the hardback volumes of computer reference and science. There were also a few textbooks and teacher's editions mixed in as well.

However, the jackpot was the book that didn't fit.

"A book all about the Punic Wars?" Aelita pulled it out.

"Weren't we covering that in class today?" Ulrich asked.

"How should I know? I was taking a nap," the feline warrior of Lyoko replied.

"Would it kill you to pay attention in History every once in a while?"

"Yes. Because of the boredom."

The pink-haired girl snorted, ignoring the banter in favor of the book. The number of red notes on the pages was astounding. _'The man was obsessed.'_

Then she ran across something familiar. "This picture's in our textbook."

The boys stopped bickering and leaned over to see the illustration she pointed at.

"Hey, cool! I remember that before I fell asleep!"

"So?" Ulrich asked, covering Odd's mouth so Aelita could get to the point uninterrupted. (He jerked his hand away with a squall of surprise and shot his best friend a dirty look not a moment later, which earned him an innocently evil smile.)

"It was after opening the book Jeremy started to have that fit. He might've remembered _this_ book somehow."

"But he's never seen it before. How could he remember it?"

"_That_ is the million-dollar question."

* * *

Jeremy typed in the final commands for the automatic transfer. Swiftly striking the Enter key, he walked to the elevator, entered, and traveled down to the scanner room. 

It was when he stepped into the scanner that he realized his timing was off. He had a few extra seconds to stare out at the world he'd tried to be a part of but could never hope to actually accomplish.

'_It'd be like a kankrelot trying to be a hornet. Face it, Jeremy: Your program was never designed to function in that manner. You've already pushed it to its limits. Stop trying to go beyond its preset parameters.'_

At last, virtualization. He landed in the Polar Region. The lack of wind blowing through his hair and across his skin didn't disturb him in the least. Neither did the all-consuming _silence._ On Earth, there was blessed constant sensation. On Lyoko, everything was dead.

He bowed his head and started to walk. However, he stopped after the first step. He held his hands out in front of him.

Human hands. He knew that he looked exactly like a human in his base form. Aelita had even flattered him by subconsciously mimicking his clothing (substituting his blue for her own pink) for her avatar though she had chosen elfin form. But he was, for all intents and purposes, human.

Only he was merely the _image_ of human, one person's _vision_ of human, not _actually_ human.

And suddenly, Jeremy couldn't stand his human form.

That quick, instead of a human slowly walking across the ice, lost in thought, a fox trudged its way across the frozen landscape.

* * *

"Does anyone know where Jeremy Belpois is?" 

Aelita whirled and swept her eyes over the desks. She'd thought Jeremy had ended up sitting with someone else if another student had sat down next to him, attempting to be friendly.

She turned to Ulrich and Odd who were equally flummoxed. Though Odd held up his hands in a "Not our fault!" gesture…probably in reference to the incident with Emily and her friends kidnapping the virtual boy.

"He said he was going home," Herve said smugly before smiling at Aelita. (She made a mental note to crush his dreams later.) "Said something about being more alone here than there."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the pink-haired girl sagged as if struck by sudden illness. "Mrs. Mayer, may I go to the infirmary?"

"We'll take her!" the other two Lyoko warriors in the classroom chimed in.

"Oh, uh, yes. Of course."

Once outside the door, the trio broke into a run towards the boiler room.

"Call Yumi and tell her to head to the factory!"

"You sure he went there?" Odd asked as Ulrich started dialing.

"Jeremy said he was going home. The only other place he _can_ call home is Lyoko!"

* * *

After an eternity of silence, the quiet whirring of gears sounded obscenely loud. 

The blond fox's ears twitched upward, and his head slowly raised to see three kankrelots headed his way.

He sighed. "Oh, c'mon, guys. I'm not in the mood."

Maybe they heard and understood, for they stopped. Yet they didn't retreat.

Jeremy took a cautious step forward.

Their lasers warmed up, humming. Then fired, just missing his feet.

The sole occupant of Lyoko leaped back, turning away. Those shots had deliberately missed. Perhaps the attacks the kankrelots prepared now would go awry as well, but he didn't want to find out.

So he ran, leaping from ice burg to ice burg, racing along ice bridges, all the while knowing he was being guided by lasers as each time he evaded one set of monsters, more appeared.

And he was helpless to do anything but obey.

* * *

Aelita literally leaped into the command chair and started typing the second she landed. "You're going to the Polar Region," she announced only to have to repeat it when she realized she'd forgotten to put on her headset in her haste. 

"Transfer Ulrich…Transfer Yumi…Transfer Odd…"

She typed a precise series of keys, glancing briefly at her dear friend's character card. It currently displayed a blond-furred blue-eyed fox.

"Scanner Ulrich…Scanner Yumi…Scanner Odd…Virtualization!"

Yumi's voice reported a moment later, "We're good, Aelita, but no sign of Jeremy."

"He's moving northwest of you with two krabes on his tail," she said, still typing. "I'm sending your vehicles."

"We're on our way."

Satisfied with her three human friends, Aelita turned her attention to her currently in distress friend. "Jeremy, we're here! The others are on the way!"

"Aelita…help me!"

She hadn't heard such desperation in his voice for quite some time, and it scared her. "Help is coming! I promise!"

"You don't understand! I'm almost out of ice!"

'_Please tell me he didn't say what I think he said…'_ She looked helplessly at her holomap.

The map never lied: Jeremy was fast approaching the end of the Polar Region.

He was running out of room to run.

She opened a channel to her friends. "Pick up the pace! We have a problem!"

"What is it?" Yumi asked.

"If Jeremy reaches the end of the sector, he's cornered."

"And XANA wins," Ulrich added.

"Exactly."

"We'll put on the afterburners, boss," Odd chirped, somehow sounding serious despite his tone.

Aelita refocused on Jeremy just as he came to a halt at the end of an ice bridge to nowhere. "Use all of your creativity, Jeremy! We need time!"

* * *

Creativity? He had none for this situation. Switching to tortoise would only delay the inevitable. It was game over. 

'_You win, XANA.'_ He closed his eyes and braced himself.

But the krabes never moved. Their lasers remained silent.

Cautiously, he cracked open an eye before lifting his head to gaze curiously. "They're just…standing there."

"I have a bad feeling about this." A pause. "The others are almost there."

The krabes turned to face the new threat. The blond fox slunk forward, but one of the mechanical monstrosities turned around and started warming up its laser. He hastily backed up.

"Whatever's going on, they want me right here for it."

He didn't know why, but he glanced up and over his shoulder to see something large and spherical approaching.

"Aelita, what's—"

He never got to finish his sentence.

* * *

"Jeremy? Jeremy! Jeremy, where are you?!" 

Aelita scanned and rescanned the Polar Region, desperate to find the virtual boy.

His signal had disappeared.

"The krabes are taken care of," Ulrich reported. "Is Jeremy…?"

"He's not in the Polar Region…" She widened her search. "He's nowhere on Lyoko, and he's not here."

"Does that mean he's…?" Odd asked shakily.

"No! There has to be something else! His character card would've recorded deletion!"

So she cast her net even wider.

This time, she got a hit.

"According to the scan, he's in…a fifth sector," she reported, finishing with awe.

"A fifth? How do we get there?" Yumi asked.

"Well, I need a password. My hint is 'Welcome to Carthage.'"

"Carthage?"

"Like the Romans versus the Carthaginians."

"You mean that Tunic Wars book you picked up?" Odd asked, the sound of laser fire coming through the link along with his voice.

"_Punic,"_ she corrected automatically as she reached for her knapsack.

She'd stuffed the book into her bag to show Jeremy after class to make amends for ditching lunch. Perhaps it would prove useful now.

Perhaps Hopper's obsession had more of a purpose behind it after all.

"Think you guys can buy me some time while I figure out the password?"

"Just give us a heads-up when more monsters are coming," the samurai warrior requested.

"Right."

* * *

Jeremy had instinctively curled up as small as possible as the white flying orb bearing the blue eye of XANA floated down to him and encircled him. Then there was the sensation of incredible speed, but for how long he traveled, he didn't know. 

'_Aelita, I'm sorry!'_

At last, the sphere released him in a spinning domed room, lit from the floor. It was mostly blue except for the white XANA eye that glowed vaguely menacingly from the ground.

He crouched low on all four paws, tail curled about himself and ears flattened. What was this strange place?

And why did it seem so…familiar?

Finally, the spinning stopped, and the wall opened to reveal a hallway. He straightened up and considered switching back to human.

No. Let him keep the small and nimble fox. Its senses were better, and it had better teeth.

"Aelita? Can you hear me?"

Silence.

"No, of course not," he sighed. "That would be too easy."

The sensible thing would be to stay put until Aelita could contact him.

However, there _might_ be a way out through that hallway.

Taking a deep breath and gathering his courage, Jeremy started to slowly slink down the dark blue corridor.

* * *

Ulrich could _just_ hear Aelita muttering passwords to herself, her voice barely loud enough to be picked up by her microphone. Each time, a wordless cry of frustration. 

Things weren't going well on Lyoko either. XANA seemed determined to delay them as long as possible. Who knew what was happening to Jeremy in the meantime?

"Tarantula's down!" Ulrich announced as the creature exploded.

"Hornets, too!" Yumi added.

"Blocks comin'!" Odd shouted from the Overboard.

The samurai groaned. "How many?"

"Looks like four square!" the cat quipped.

The groan was in stereo this time before the brunette shouted, "Aelita, how much longer?"

"You try figuring out a computer genius's password!" she snapped.

'_Bite my head off…'_

"Wait! I got it! We have to get _into_ Carthage! Scipio! It's so easy!"

"Say what?" Yumi asked, readying her fans.

"Never mind! Just get into position!"

Ulrich ran with Yumi beside him to where Jeremy had disappeared. Odd swooped down and jumped, landing next to Yumi.

"Here we go!" the one at the keyboard announced.

The samurai turned as the geisha pointed and asked, "What's that?"

And the white ball with the blue XANA eye swept them up and away.

* * *

Yumi hadn't found the transporter pleasant but it wasn't anywhere near Odd's reaction. 

"Ugh. I think I'm gonna hurl."

"Is it possible to hurl on Lyoko?" Ulrich asked philosophically.

"Hmm…excellent question. This might be a good time to test that."

"Hey, Aelita, since you're not here…" Yumi began, allowing her voice to trail off.

"Please do. I still have to listen to it."

The Japanese girl unfurled her fans and struck each boy squarely in the back of the head with the side of a fan, causing the feline and the samurai to cry out in pain.

"Thanks, Yumi." A pause. "I've located Jeremy! He's in a large room connected by a hallway to you."

"What hallway?" Ulrich asked, rubbing the sore spot.

"The wall in front of you should be opening…now."

On cue, the wall did in fact open. Yumi narrowed her eyes intently and ran forward, ending up just behind Ulrich and Odd. While not as fast a runner, she would be more useful in the fight in other ways.

"Be careful; there are monsters I can't identify surrounding Jeremy."

"How's he doin'?" Odd asked.

"He's in tiger form and at seventy life points. Not too bad but not great."

"We're on it!" Ulrich told Aelita, sprinting ahead.

* * *

The creatures of this fifth sector had swiftly learned to be cautious of the blond tiger. Especially since Jeremy was now in a Very Bad Mood. 

He was upset that he couldn't be human no matter what. He was depressed that all of the preparation and trouble his friends had gone to was a waste. And he was downright _pissed_ that XANA couldn't leave him alone for one freaking day!

His lips pulled back from his currently _very_ impressive teeth in a snarl. His claws were out, lightly tapping the floor with soft _clicks_ as he adjusted his stance ever so slightly. His tail swished slowly behind him.

The slithering creature to the left and before him reared back its head, mouth open. With a roar, Jeremy leapt to the right before pouncing, slicing into gooey flesh and watching it explode with a _squelch_. Two more met similar fates though a laser shot the tiger's right flank.

"Jeremy!"

The tiger's ears pricked. "Aelita?"

"Jeremy, I was so worried!"

He backed away from the slithering creatures. "You were…worried?"

"Of course I was! And your life points are really low. The others are on the way."

"No!" His tail lashed in alarm.

"What's wrong?"

"We don't have the de-virtualization codes for here. If their life points reach zero, they could be lost."

No response from Aelita.

The tiger took the time to bite the arm of a creature that got too close, hanging on long enough to create enough damage to destroy it. "Aelita?"

"The others said that they don't care. They're coming back with you or not at all."

"Why?" he asked, unable to understand. "I'm not human. I don't belong there."

"You're human to us" was the soft response. "You belong with us."

He still didn't understand but didn't have time to ask as the creatures scattered. A sudden _presence,_ powerful and evil, approached from behind.

"Aelita…there's something here…"

He'd been surrounded by XANA's presence during that disastrous jump to Earth that had implanted the virus. It had been strong then yet somehow distant. Here, it was focused, intense. This wasn't XANA itself, but it was close.

The terror that struck Jeremy made it impossible to face the threat in a timely manner. He could only turn slowly, trembling, Aelita screaming at him to answer her from somewhere very far away.

At the same time, he had a strange sensation of being in two places at once. One was the large room filled with various levels thanks to the random columns while the other was a large room that was completely empty with no floor save for the large square that he and the man from the Hermitage stood on. He was in tiger form and base human form. He was both turning around and looking up.

What drifted towards him (both from a "corridor" and from the ceiling) was a squid-like creature bearing the XANA eye. But as the double-image stopped—XANA-created or something else?—the creature reached out its tentacles for him.

"What is that thing?!" he shrieked, backing up.

"Jeremy, what is it?!" Aelita yelled, voice returning with sudden clarity.

"I don't know! You tell me!"

He slashed at the tentacles, but they just kept _reaching._ So he turned to run.

They wrapped around him.

He roared in fear and writhed in their grip, but they merely turned him towards the horrific monster. Then they glowed pink.

Jeremy found himself in human form against his will. "No! No no no no no!"

"Jeremy! Guys, hurry up! Jeremy's in trouble!"

He didn't hear the response as three tentacles hovered before his forehead.

He gasped at the sudden intrusion in his mind, but everything suddenly went numb. His body went limp as his thoughts grew hazy.

He didn't even try to fight back.

* * *

Ulrich was the first to reach the scene, allowing the other two to finish off what Odd had dubbed "creepers". The sight of his virtual pal dangling listlessly in the grip of a giant squid thing was certainly unwelcome. 

"Uh, Aelita, there's this thing that has Jeremy…"

"Destroy it," she ordered ruthlessly. "It's stealing his memories!"

Using Super Sprint to pick up speed first he leaped into the air and used his blade to slice through the tentacles holding the monster's prey. Jeremy hovered unsupported for a moment before falling like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

A fan and a few arrows flew over Ulrich's head to strike the bulbous "head" solidly. It was now that the monster made its retreat, floating gracefully away.

"Jeremy. Jeremy," Ulrich called, shaking his shoulder.

The virtual boy mumbled unintelligibly before opening his eyes. He sat up and looked at his friends.

"Man, did you give us a scare," Odd said.

"I'm sorry." Jeremy stared at the floor.

"Don't worry about it. Let's just get out of here," Yumi said.

So it was back through the room, through the hallway, and back to the Polar Region via the transporter. At last, everyone was back on Earth, safe and sound.

* * *

Aelita couldn't stop hugging Jeremy as if letting go would allow the "Scyphozoa" (not the most creative name she'd ever come up with but whatever) to come out of a shadow and steal her friend's memories. It was a bit clingy and definitely gossip material—a wonder that Milly and Tamiya had yet to pick up on it—but she'd rather feed the rumor mill than watch him lose his memories. 

"I'm really, really sorry, Aelita," he muttered into her hair. She didn't even have to look to see the look of abject misery and apology on his face.

"Everybody gets homesick when they go away to school, Jeremy. It's normal," she told him, rubbing his back. "And everybody has it rough being the new kid. I should've put off the trip to the Hermitage until I was sure you were settled in. I'm sorry."

She glanced up and over Jeremy's shoulder to see a shocked look on Herve's face.

'_Oh yeah. I forgot about that.'_

Grinning evilly to herself, she sighed dramatically and leaned her head against her friend's shoulder.

Herve sputtered and then made a great show of looking for Sissi all along.

"I don't know what that was for, but I know you did it on purpose."

"Just getting a little revenge on a certain jerk who made your day even worse."

_Click! Whirr…_

"Wow!" Milly chirped, appearing with Tamiya from seemingly nowhere. "Only one day and already a couple! Any tips on romance for our readers?"

The pair jerked apart.

Jeremy blinked at the news team. "A…couple…?"

Aelita clapped a hand over her virtual friend's mouth and yelped, "No comment!"


	2. Sector Five

Fragments  
By Cybra

**A/N:** Well, here we go again. I apologize for the delay, but my full-time job is trying to graduate, my internship, and trying to find a full-time job.

**Disclaimer: **_Code Lyoko_ belongs to the French.

Sector Five  
_Based Upon "Exploration"_

It wasn't often that Jeremy and Aelita fought, but when they did, well, they were both very stubborn people. The match could go on for ages.

The meeting was being held in Jeremy's room this time, so Yumi decided to walk with Odd and Ulrich. Aelita, she reasoned, would already be there, working on the virtual boy's antivirus.

So that's when they walked in on the fight in progress.

"No, no, _no!_ Out of the question! It's too dangerous!" the pink-haired girl snapped.

"We need more data," the blond countered. "We've gleaned all we can from the towers. There might be more—!"

"—and it could be one big trap to steal your memories! The Scyphozoa wasn't destroyed!"

"I don't think it _can_ be destroyed! We know what to look for now, so you can warn us if the Scyphozoa's coming!"

"Which brings us back to the 'it's too dangerous' bit. There's also the time limit problem that cropped up the last time we tried going."

"There has to be something that shuts it off. Another way out. We need data, Aelita. The only way to obtain that data is to go there."

"Well, then _you_ operate the supercalculator, and _we'll_ check it out."

"Absurd! Suppose there's a tower or some similar structure that needs to be deactivated? I can't do that remotely!"

"Oh, boy," Ulrich moaned.

"Lovers' spat," Odd said, nodding sagely.

"Or something," the Japanese girl agreed, hands on her hips. "They're really going at it. Usually they stop long enough to say 'hi'."

"What do you think it's about?" the brunette asked.

Yumi paused to listen. "Jeremy keeps saying 'data' and Aelita keeps coming back to the Scyphozoa. My best guess is Sector Five."

"Cool. Are we going back?" the wild-haired boy asked.

The virtual boy answered "Yes" at the exact same time the pink-haired girl responded with an emphatic "No!"

"Uh…_okay…_Is that a 'maybe'?"

"Sector Five could hold valuable data regarding the antivirus which would allow you to shut XANA down," Jeremy pointed out. "Deactivating XANA is the primary objective."

Aelita clenched her fists. "Keeping you safe is important, too!"

"Aelita," he said softly, _"no one_ is safe while XANA remains active."

She opened her mouth to argue before releasing a sigh. "I hate this. You know I have to run things from the outside since someone has to be at the controls for the transporter."

"We'll be okay," Yumi assured the younger girl, placing a hand on her shoulder. "If things get bad, pull us out."

"That's the problem: I can't."

The other three warriors grew _very_ attentive.

"What do you mean?" Ulrich asked.

"I told you guys before: I don't have the devirtualization codes for Sector Five. And I really don't think it has any towers we can use. If you guys reach zero, you could end up in the Digital Void or worse. We got lucky during that little trip last time."

Yumi shuddered, remembering her previous experience in the Void thanks to a fall. If Aelita hadn't sacrificed her one shot at materializing Jeremy…

Well, then they'd be trying to find a way to materialize _her_ instead. And they wouldn't have this virus mess.

"What about Jeremy? Can you pull him out?" the Japanese girl asked.

A shake of the head from the bespectacled boy. "Just like the old days. Besides, materialization only works via a tower."

"So we have to be extra careful. Got it," Ulrich said with a nod.

"We'll do it tonight so we don't miss any classes," Aelita decided, clearly wanting to get it over with.

The dark-haired girl swallowed. "Tonight?"

"What's wrong?" Odd teased. "Got a hot date?"

"No! I'm…grounded," she mumbled.

Dead silence.

"What's that?" Jeremy asked at last.

Odd apparently couldn't resist cackling, clapping his hands as he laughed, "Yumi got busted by her parents!"

"'Busted'?"

"Odd…" the Japanese girl growled.

"Yumi…what happened?" the younger girl asked, clearly shocked.

"My parents caught me sneaking in after that last XANA attack and wouldn't take 'I don't wanna talk about it' for an answer. They've noticed all of my 'sneaking around'" she made quotation marks with her fingers here "lately and think I've either gotten into trouble or gotten involved with a boy."

"Ee…" The feline warrior of Lyoko cringed.

"Tell me about it. Things were way easier when we could use Returns to the Past to reset everything."

Since the discovery that resetting time made XANA stronger—strong enough to possess humans—they had to pick and choose using that feature sparingly. Which meant when they used excuses to leave the classroom on a moment's notice, teachers remembered their lame excuses.

And, apparently, so did parents.

"So I'm out for tonight unless I want to be absolutely _dead."_

"Would a delay be better?" Aelita asked.

Yumi thought it over and winced. "No, I don't think so. At least, not any time soon."

"Then we'll have to go ahead with just the boys," the pink-haired girl sighed.

"Don't sound too pleased, Aelita. Don't want us to get too overconfident," the brunette said blandly.

"Sorry, but it's uncharted territory with enemies we don't really understand. I'd feel better at full strength."

'_And by "full strength" you mean all four of us surrounding Jeremy,'_ Yumi said silently. Aloud, she said, "Keep me posted via cell phone. If something goes wrong, well, I'll just be in bigger trouble with my parents."

"I'll give you the play-by-play," the younger girl promised.

* * *

Odd hopped from foot to foot as the trio of boys descended that night to the scanner room. "This is gonna be so cool!"

"Just remember, Odd…" Ulrich started.

"I know, I know. 'Watch the lifepoints.' I heard Aelita the first fifty times she said it." The boy clad in purple grinned. "Still, new turf to explore!"

The brunette sighed and rolled his eyes while the other blond smiled.

"Actually, I'm excited as well," the virtual boy admitted. "Nothing is ever new on Lyoko. All that ever _has_ been new have been monsters. But an entire sector that I never knew about…?" He shook his head in wonder.

"Well, here's your chance to get a look," Odd chirped as the elevator doors opened.

"All right, boys," Aelita's voice called with forced cheer. "You're headed for the forest and then Sector Five."

The three boys each stepped into the scanners. Odd bounced a little on his toes as he did so.

"Transfer Ulrich…Transfer Jeremy…Transfer Odd…"

The doors slid shut. It took all of his willpower not to squeak with excitement as the scanner whirred and he closed his eyes, broad grin on his face.

"Scanner Ulrich…Scanner Jeremy…Scanner Odd…Virtualization!"

'_I love my life!'_

* * *

"All present and accounted for," Jeremy reported upon landing.

Ulrich narrowed his eyes and slowly swept his gaze over the surrounding Forest Region. "Nothing. No monsters. Not even one kankrelot."

"How rude! No welcoming party?" the cat groused, tail swishing languidly behind him.

The samurai frowned deeply. "I don't like this. What does your screen say, Aelita?"

"Screen says not an enemy in sight."

"Actually, that's pretty normal," Jeremy said, walking a little past the two Lyoko warriors.

"What do you mean?" the brunette asked. "Usually, we're up to our eyeballs in monsters."

"You're usually here because of a XANA attack. Of course there are plenty of monsters then. But XANA's not attacking now, so it has no need to try and protect any of its objectives; it has none at this moment in time. While it sleeps, it only has a few monsters running on basic instructions. There are days I can run for hours without meeting a single monster."

"Well, that's logical," Aelita reasoned.

The virtual boy smiled. "You forget that XANA is, first and foremost, a computer. It _must_ follow logic in some way, shape, or form."

"Because destroying humanity is _so_ logical," Odd said, rolling his eyes.

"I never said it as _our_ logic it had to follow."

The Overwing, Overboard, and Overbike materialized before the three boys. Automatically, the samurai went for the Overbike while the cat flipped onto the Overboard. Jeremy stepped onto the Overwing. (While the virtual boy in one of his other forms could give Ulrich using Super Sprint a run for his money, the vehicles made it difficult for him to keep up at times.)

"The edge of the forest is south of you. There's no monsters nearby, but be alert anyway."

"Right, Chief," Odd chirped.

* * *

Aelita tapped a key on her keyboard. "Hey, Yumi."

"How's it going?"

"Too well if you ask me. No monsters in sight in the forest. Jeremy says that's normal since XANA's asleep, but you never know."

"Well, maybe we're just lucky today."

"Cross your fingers." She paused. "Okay, I'm typing in the code," she announced to everyone.

S-C-I-P-I-O.

"They made it the whole way without meeting one monster?"

"Uh huh."

"That's…convenient. Too convenient."

"Nice to see I'm not the only one who believes in Mr. Murphy."

* * *

"The countdown has begun. If you haven't found a way to shut it off or a way out, the room will change in three minutes."

Odd exchanged a glance with Ulrich. The other boy placed a meaningful hand on the hilt of his saber. In response, he cocked his arrow launcher.

They still had all their lifepoints. That was good, but they had to be wary here.

The Digital Void looked like it really, _really_ sucked.

The run down the corridor was easy. However, the main room…

"Um, Aelita? We have a slight problem," Ulrich called.

"I see it. Rats! Your avatar just wasn't built for this, Ulrich!"

The room had no floor. All it had was various struts sticking out of the walls at odd angles, forming a strange jungle gym-like structure.

Odd could handle it. He had claws and shoes with a firm grip. Jeremy could handle it by switching to any number of creatures that could climb or a few small flying creatures and avoid the mess altogether.

Ulrich had neither option. His sandals would slide and he had no claws. Sprinting, he was unmatched. Climbing…

"This is Yumi's playground," the samurai sighed.

"There's a mechanism on the other side of the room. It might be what we're looking for. And two minutes left."

Jeremy switched to panther, claws extended. "Get on and hang on tight."

"You sure about this?" Ulrich asked, moving to obey.

"You never left me behind. Comfy?"

"No real-_ly!"_

The panther leaped into space and landed on one of the bars, grunting a bit on the landing. Odd nimbly leapt about, landing close by.

"I'll go on ahead. It'll take you two too long." Then he leapt away.

Ulrich felt Jeremy gather himself just before another leap. He gritted his teeth and forced himself not to look down.

Oh, how life _sucked_ right now…

The purple-clad feline's sudden curse drew his attention.

"What's wrong?" he called, unintentionally catching a glimpse of the black abyss below.

"Odd, you just lost twenty lifepoints! Jeremy, Ulrich, be careful of the red laser beams ahead. One touch will cost you twenty lifepoints."

"We'll be cautious," the virtual boy promised, inching along one of the struts.

Something beyond the senses—more like instinct—made Ulrich draw his digital saber, sweeping it over the panther's head. A laser shot hit the glowing blue blade and ricocheted harmlessly away. Jeremy jerked his head up slightly.

"Creepers! We're surrounded!" Ulrich reported.

"Hang on!"

Sheathing his blade, the samurai wrapped his arms around his friend's neck. The panther ran forward and leaped off the end, jumping to the next beam. Just as Ulrich was enjoying his reunion with his stomach, they were parted again as Jeremy leapt off this beam towards Odd.

The purple-clad cat kneeled on one of the struts above them, firing arrows for all he was worth at the creepers. Once the pair was past, they all continued on towards the red lasers.

And the countdown continued.

* * *

Yumi answered her phone on the first ring. "Hello?"

"Get down to the factory for immediate departure" was Aelita's grim order. "We're going to need you soon."

The Japanese girl sat up on her futon. "Who's been devirtualized?"

"No one. _Yet._ But it's bad, Yumi. Ulrich had the disadvantage right off, so that cut down our fighters. Then they got mobbed. Odd's down to forty lifepoints; Ulrich, fifty; Jeremy, sixty."

"And the countdown?" Yumi pressed the phone against her ear with her shoulder as she shoved a doll under the covers.

Pause. "They're not gonna make it."

The dark-haired girl was out the window.

* * *

"10…9…8…7…"

Odd dodged right as a creeper shot at him. It wasn't fair! He was so freaking close! If he could just jump over this line of—!

The cat backed up before running forward and jumping. "Here we go!" he yelled.

"Odd, are you crazy?!" Ulrich yelled.

The creepers, naturally, opened fire. He felt little dull blasts of pain.

"5…4…3…"

It was gonna be just like the movies. Right on the clock.

But he started to break apart before he even touched the button. And he might as well have given it a wave for all the pressure he applied to it.

'_So not fair.'_

"_**Odd!"**_

* * *

"Ulrich, behind you!"

Jeremy pointed with his nose, his current cobra form having no other appendages with which he could point. He spat poison similar to the acidic venom of the hornets at one of the creepers.

"Yumi is on her way, but you have to buy her time!" Aelita told them.

"Okay, but we may not have a lot! Whenever the room decides to—Whoa!"

The room seemed to have decided upon its new configuration. Beams mashed together to form a solid floor. Some formed excess walls.

Such as the one that blocked the samurai from the cobra.

"Ulrich!" Jeremy hissed, slithering along the wall and hunting for cracks.

"The laser beams! Ulrich, they're coming towards…! Oh, no. Jeremy, you're on your own," the pink-haired girl moaned.

The snake coiled up. "Where's the Scyphozoa?"

"I'm looking."

"Please look faster."

"Hang on; Yumi's here. I'm sending her to the Mountain Region and then Sector Five."

"_Hurry."_

For ten agonizing seconds, there was silence. And then she asked, "Jeremy? Are you still there?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I've located the mechanism. It's to the east of you."

He uncoiled. "I'm on it."

"Be careful."

He slithered quickly, flicking his tongue in and out to "smell" for enemies.

"The Scyphozoa! It's moving to cut you off!"

Instantly, he jerked to the left. "Where's Yumi?"

"Closer to the mechanism than you are. Find a place to hide, and I'll call you back in thirty seconds."

Coiling up in a crevice, Jeremy stared out at the rest of Sector Five, forcing himself to _slowly_ count each second.

* * *

"Yumi, it's all up to you. I can't bring Odd and Ulrich back without those codes."

The geisha somersaulted over a "fallen" beam and struck a red laser with her foot. "Ah!"

"Careful!" Aelita ordered. "If you're devirtualized, it's game over for good!"

"Right…Do you want me to take care of the Scyphozoa?"

"No. If I'm right, hitting the mechanism will not only stop the countdown, but change things to our advantage."

"I'm all for that." Yumi slid on her belly under three lasers. "How much longer?"

"A little less than two minutes. And the Scyphozoa's going for Jeremy. The mechanism is in the crevice to the upper left of you."

The geisha glanced a bit ahead to see the switch. "Okay, I'll pick up the pace."

"Don't lose too many lifepoints in the process, okay?"

"Got it."

"I'm going back to Jeremy."

* * *

'_23…24…25…'_

"Jeremy!"

The cobra snapped his head up, striking his skull firmly against the "ceiling" of his hiding spot. "Ow…"

"Sorry. The Scyphozoa is moving in on your location. Get out of there now!"

The blond-scaled snake slithered out and moved swiftly across the blue landscape.

"Left! Jeremy, left!"

Without questioning, he did as ordered, and a slim, translucent tentacle just missed him.

"Right! Right! Left! No, your _other_ left!"

Glowing tentacles landed on each side of him as he followed Aelita's commands. However, he couldn't dodge forever, and he found himself being swept off the ground.

"No!" was Aelita's pained cry.

He was forced into base human form even as he struggled and the three hated tentacles came to hover in front of his forehead.

* * *

Yumi slid out from beneath the last of the lasers, snarling at the two creepers that had given her so much grief during the ordeal. She unfurled her fans and threw them with well-practiced skill.

They sliced right through, causing the disgusting creatures to explode with twin _splurch_es.

"That's so gross," she muttered as she caught her fans, running towards the switch. She pressed it inward, grinning as the XANA symbol lit up.

* * *

A panel slid down on the tentacles, forcing the Scyphozoa to drop Jeremy.

"Yes!" the pink-haired girl cheered, punching a fist into the air. She opened a channel to Yumi. "When was the last time I told you you're amazing?"

"Not recent enough," Yumi preened. "How's Jeremy?"

"Fine. The Scyphozoa didn't even have time to get started." The girl at the computer consulted the holomap. "There's a doorway out. I want you to take it."

She gave the same order to Jeremy after double-checking his current health.

"It's some kind of elevator," the geisha reported.

"According to my screen, if you ride it, you and Jeremy will meet back up."

"Y'know, I was kinda hoping you'd say that." There was no mistaking the smile in the older girl's voice. "Here we go!"

* * *

"_**Yahoo!"**_

Jeremy looked to his left to see a swiftly approaching platform, a very enthusiastic Yumi riding it. He held out his hand to take her offered one.

"Whoa!"

His body left his current, stable platform with a jerk as Yumi grabbed hold. She swung him on beside her, and he held on for dear life.

"Where are we going?"

"I have no idea. But it's kinda fun getting there."

At last, the elevator pulled to a stop, and a doorway opened to the outside.

"Guess this is the way out. Though what're we gonna do about Odd and Ulrich?" the geisha wondered aloud as they walked through it.

There was a pull at the edge of the structure. The virtual boy ran to it and lifted his hands. Obediently, a screen came to life.

"Jeremy, I don't know what you just did, but I can't do anything from here," Aelita told him, worried.

"It's okay. It's just…It's incredible! There's so much data compiled here! Aelita, I think Sector Five is where XANA _lives!"_

Yumi moved to look over his shoulder as he manipulated screens. "Are you telling me that that's _XANA's_ data?"

The virtual boy nodded, still sifting through calculations, codes, and various other data.

"There could be valuable information on the virus there. Enough to make an antivirus," Aelita marveled. "Jeremy, look for the devirtualization codes for Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi."

"Already working on it. I'll send you those codes as soon as I find them."

"Make it fast," Yumi cautioned. "Something's coming out of the wall."

Jeremy glanced up to see large, manta ray-like creatures soaring towards them. Then he turned back to the screens. He heard the buzz of the geisha's fans as they flew past his head, but he remained focused on his task.

* * *

"Sending the codes now."

"Great. Yumi's down to twenty lifepoints. Taking back control and sending you both the Overwing."

She noted that Jeremy had sent not three but _four_ devirtualization codes. _'I doubt I'm ever going to get to go, but that was sweet of him.'_

"Aelita, Yumi's not going to hang on long enough for the Overwing!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!"

However, Jeremy was correct. Just as the Overwing materialized, Yumi lost her last lifepoints.

Then the Overwing was blasted away.

"I'm opening a tunnel. Fly as fast as you can!"

Jeremy's character card switched to a falcon avatar. She typed furiously, glancing up only occasionally to make sure that his lifepoints were fine.

"The southern tunnel is open! Get going!"

The yellow triangle dove through.

The red symbols didn't pursue.

"They didn't chase me," Jeremy said in wonder.

"Let's just be thankful. Where are you?"

"The passage tower in the Polar Region spit me out."

"Okay. Return to human, and I'll materialize you using that tower. Then let's see if we can't get Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi back."

* * *

Ulrich groaned as he opened his eyes. He saw Jeremy and Aelita flitting between him, Yumi, and Odd.

"Are you three okay?" the virtual boy asked, blue eyes wide. "Say something."

The three disoriented Kadic students glanced at each other, knowing exactly what to say to reassure their friends.

"Something."

* * *

"Yumi, where were you last night?" her mother asked.

"I was…out…"

"Doesn't the word 'grounded' mean anything to you, young lady?" her father demanded. "We've told you time and again that we want to know what's going on, and if you keep sneaking around, we'll keep punishing you!"

Yumi sighed. "Okay, it's just that…I'm…I'm in love."

Her parents looked surprised but then smiled knowingly.

"And just who is this young man?" her mother asked.

The Japanese girl wrung her hands. "I don't know if I can say it yet." She blushed with embarrassment.

Her father wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders. "Well, when you can, we'd like to hear about it. Now you'd better get to class."

"Yes, sir." She waved her parents goodbye and stuck her tongue out at Sissi who had looked ready and willing to give her a second hard day about being walked to school by her parents.

'_Okay, so I lied. A little.'_ She glanced at Ulrich and blushed slightly. _'It's better than having them worry about XANA attacks, right?'_


	3. Franz Hopper's Diary

Fragments  
By Cybra

**A/N:** I'm planning to do "Saint Valentine's Day" next for all those people who mentioned it. Yes, I'm late for the real Valentine's Day, but don't bug me on it. Also, I admit to having a small nerdgasm here since last semester I read and did a presentation on a paper on decrypting files. Not to mention the fact that I think I've started a running gag with Milly and Tamiya. I really need to think of something else for those two.

**Disclaimer:** _Code Lyoko_ belongs to the French.

Franz Hopper's Diary  
_Based Upon "Mister Puck"_

To Jeremy, the book on the Punic Wars was a kind of talisman. It was a reminder of _something _from before, but what he didn't know. In his dreams, he saw himself opening the book to reveal a shining treasure. Yet in daylight, it was just an old book with numerous notes in red ink.

He carried it everywhere in his backpack, hoping that somewhere, somehow he'd see it in a new light.

Because the men in black in his dreams wanted the book, too. They chased him for hours, reaching out in attempts to snatch the book away. Or they would look at him and realize something, so they'd grab at him, too. So he'd scream and try to run, hugging the tome to his chest.

If he was lucky, Odd or Ulrich (or both) would come and wake him up. If he wasn't, well, he wasn't very popular with the guys on his hallway.

"I don't think there's anything special about it, Jeremy. I think Hopper just kept his notes in it," Aelita told him. "Anything really useful is gone by now. It's just a nightmare."

"So why do I keep having it?" he asked.

"And why was it important enough for him to remember in the first place?" Ulrich added. "Don't forget about that."

"Who'd _want_ to remember _this_ nasty old thing?" Sissi cut in, picking it up by the front cover by the tips of her fingers. "It's so grody."

"Be careful!" Jeremy pleaded, rising from his seat, hands reaching out to take it back.

"Oh, c'mon. It's a book. Nothing's gonna hurt it." She tossed it carelessly over her shoulder.

The blond watched even Herve cringe as it sailed helplessly to the floor, bouncing on top of its spine before landing facedown.

But just before it landed…_ting!_

The unusual noise drew everyone's attention. Apparently, the rough treatment had dislodged something in the book's spine.

On Sissi's command, Nicholas dove for it, but a high-heeled shoe landed on it first.

"Uh uh," Dana told him, filing her nails. "His book, his thing. That's the rules."

She paused her filing long enough to high-five Vanessa.

Mrs. Mayer walked in as Sissi opened her mouth to protest. "What is going on here?"

The Delmas girl glowered but backed down. Dana slid the object over to her hand as Jeremy walked over to retrieve his book.

"Here ya go, sweetie," the girl whispered, handing him a strange key with a wink.

He mumbled a thanks and hurried back to a fuming Aelita.

* * *

'_I oughtta ring her cheeky little neck…'_

Tempting but sadly illegal. However, nothing could stop Aelita from entertaining amusing thoughts of homicide in various creative ways. (Her favorites involved Synthesis in some way, shape, or form.)

Jeremy passing her the key interrupted such pleasant thoughts, the look in his eye clearly stating "You're the expert."

She turned it over and over in her hands. All that marked it was a number and a suitcase symbol.

'_Luggage locker most likely. Airport? No, they don't have those. Train station!'_ She tapped her virtual friend's knee. "After class," she mouthed.

He nodded and returned his attention to the lesson.

She shoved the key into her pocket, wondering just what they'd stumbled into this time.

Last time, they'd ended up involved in a war against a demonic artificial intelligence.

* * *

Even though it was only mid-afternoon, the train station was packed with people. Humanity rushed from platform to platform, thoughtlessly pushing each other aside to quicken their pace by an extra second.

This was probably why the group of five went unnoticed as they headed towards the luggage locker indicated by the key held in the bespectacled boy's shaking hand. Yumi reached out to pat his shoulder reassuringly.

"Well, let's hope we don't regret this," Jeremy said, sticking the key in the lock and turning it.

For a moment, it seemed as if the key wouldn't work. However, there was a _pop_ as the lock finally unstuck, and the locker opened to reveal a suitcase. As the virtual boy pulled it out, the Japanese girl read off the initials on it:

"F.H."

"Fuzzy Hands?" Odd jokingly queried.

"Franz Hopper," Aelita corrected as their friend set the case down on the bench behind them.

Jeremy popped it open to reveal about two dozen CDs.

"Cool! Music!" the wild-haired boy chirped.

"Somehow, I don't think so," the pink-haired girl said, sitting down and pulling out her laptop from her bag.

As she inserted one of the disks, Jeremy leaned over to watch the screen, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Agreed. From what little we know about him, it doesn't seem as if Hopper would go to all this trouble to hide his music collection."

"So it's gotta be data of some kind, right?" Yumi asked, trying (with limited success) not to smirk as Aelita's ears started to turn bright pink while Jeremy obliviously continued watching the laptop.

A 3D image formed in the shape of a book. "Apparently, it's better than that," Aelita said, clearing her throat a little. "It seems to be his actual _diary."_

Ulrich gave a whistle.

"Unfortunately, it's encrypted."

"So, it'll take you guys, what, two hours to break?" Odd asked. "You're a pair of Einsteins."

"More like two years."

"What's the problem?" the Japanese girl asked, sitting down just behind the laptop screen and peeking over the top.

"Actually, it's more like multiple problems," Jeremy said. "First of all, we don't know the original algorithm Hopper used in order to encrypt his data, so we don't know what decryption algorithm to use. We also don't have a key. It could be in the book somewhere like the key to the luggage locker, but it'd take us a long time to figure it out. Plus there's no guarantee that Hopper didn't use multiple overlapping encryption techniques or simply create his own algorithm. It's not like a simple substitution cipher where A equals E and so on."

"Eh…How about we just take your word for it?" the samurai asked, scratching the back of his head while Odd stared blankly at the screen.

"Fortunately for us, we have the supercalculator," Aelita said, face turning shades of pink darker than her hair the longer her virtual friend's chin stayed on her shoulder. "We can use it to analyze the encrypted files and then start trying to decrypt them based on the data collected."

"It'll still be slow but hopefully not _as_ slow," Jeremy agreed.

Yumi nodded her head. She didn't completely understand what it was that they were planning to do but grasped the general concepts. This was precisely why they worked the technical side of things.

Her lips tugged into a slow smile as she watched Aelita pack up her computer, trying and failing to look completely calm and collected. At the same time, the virtual boy finally stopped leaning over the pink-cheeked girl, closing up the suitcase.

* * *

"Yumi, you didn't need to come with me," the pink-haired girl grumbled as the elevator door to the hidden lab opened.

"I thought I'd keep you company," the older one said with forced innocence. "Especially seeing as how Ulrich and Odd kidnapped Jeremy for who-knows-what."

"And today's little incident at the train station had nothing to do with that decision?"

"What incident? I didn't see any incident."

Aelita gave Yumi a bland stare.

After a few minutes of silence, the Japanese girl started laughing. "Oh, man! You're face…! It was just…!"

"One of these days, _one of these days,_ you and Ulrich are going to pull the cliché 'fall on top of each other and accidentally kiss' embarrassing moment, and I pray to whatever gods are out there that I have a camera on hand when it happens," Aelita seethed.

Yumi gave a toothy grin. "I can't help it, Miss 'I Don't Have Time For A Boyfriend, And Who Needs One Anyway?'."

"I have a question for you, Miss Pot: What color's the kettle?"

"It's definitely black." The Japanese girl placed her hands on her hips as Aelita set the old suitcase down and popped it open. "So, what're we doing anyway?"

"We're copying the diary onto a secure section of the supercalculator: the same area I keep all our profiles so XANA doesn't get to play 'What Can I Mess With This Time?' whenever we want to go to Lyoko."

"Not comfortable with only one copy, I'm guessing."

"No. Only an idiot has one copy of computer data since even normal computers are so ingenious at finding ways at destroying it." She loaded in the first disk.

"So how long do you think this'll take?"

"Depends on how fast the supercalculator is at copying everything. I'll side with pessimism and say at least an hour."

"Makes me wish I brought a deck of cards or something."

The pink-haired girl gave a sarcastic grin. "Welcome to the wonderful world of data processing."

* * *

Classes the next day were uneventful. Well, uneventful unless you counted the usual Sissi attacks and Herve just about pitching a fit when Jeremy beat out his Algebra exam score by one point, effectively dethroning him as top of the class.

The Lyoko group (sans Yumi) was heading to pick up their oldest member when the virtual boy paused as he absently reached into his side pack. "You guys go on ahead. I need to drop off something by the library."

"You finished that book already?" Ulrich asked, arching an eyebrow.

A firm nod of the head and a smile on his face. "It was very interesting even if it wasn't based on factual information. Tell Yumi I'll be there in a few minutes, okay?" He started to run off.

The brunette shook his head, giving the other boy's retreating back a fond smile. "He really likes the library, doesn't he?"

"I think the idea of an information database that doesn't immediately update itself is still a novelty to him," Aelita pointed out, arms crossed but a grin on her face.

Suddenly, Jeremy turned around, hopping on one foot. "Oh, Aelita, I almost forgot! Can we go to the usual place this afternoon?"

Ulrich's other eyebrow lifted to join its mate.

"Um…why?" Aelita asked.

A twinge of color on the boy's cheeks. "It's a surprise."

The brunette blinked before exchanging sneaky grins with Odd before they both grinned evilly at the only female currently in their group.

"Oh…um…sure, Jeremy. That'd be great."

Apparently satisfied, the virtual boy continued on his way.

"One word, and you're both dead men."

"We didn't say anything," Odd chirped.

* * *

Jeremy jogged around a corner, cheeks still warm. Blushing, he'd decided a long time ago, was a very confusing sensation. Curiously, it often cropped up in the presence of Aelita though why she would be the source of embarrassment (what he understood to be the cause of blushing) didn't really make sense.

He slammed into someone, stumbling backwards. "S-Sorry…William?"

The older boy stood shock-still, not reacting to his voice.

"William? Are you okay?" Without thinking, he reached out towards the other boy.

Suddenly, the black-haired teen looked down at him. His eyes shifted, their pupils and irises disappearing to reveal a familiar symbol.

"Oh, no."

Jeremy backed up, dropping his school bag. He turned and started to run, but XANA was faster, catching him on the shoulder.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw electricity flow through the stolen hand and into his body. He opened his mouth to cry out and, within seconds, blacked out before he even fell limp.

* * *

"Where is he?" Aelita asked, checking her watch for the third time in two minutes.

"You're really excited about that surprise, huh?" Ulrich smirked.

"He mentioned a surprise, too?" The older girl gave a sly grin to her younger friend who looked like she was doing her best to ignore the commentary.

The wild-haired boy idly kicked a stone into the air. "Jeremy _has_ been up to something all week. He's been using Ulrich's laptop."

"Wait a second. _Ulrich_ has a _laptop?"_ the pink-haired girl asked, not looking convinced.

"Hey, I'm not a total computer idiot!" the samurai protested. "I just use it to check my mail."

"I'm gonna have to see proof of this later if only for the fact that I can't picture you with a laptop." Odd watched as Aelita checked her watch again. "That's it. I'm calling his cell phone."

"He'll get in trouble with the librarian."

"He's in trouble with _me_ now. He said a few minutes to drop off a book. This is way too long."

"You're just scared that Dana's got him in her evil clutches." Insert patented mischievous Odd grin here.

"I will ignore that and continue dialing." She held the pink phone up to her ear, listening. After a few moments…"This is weird. I got his voicemail."

"Try again?" Ulrich suggested, all good humor leaving the group.

They waited as she redialed.

"No answer again." She stuffed the phone back in her pocket just as her laptop started beeping furiously. Pulling it out, she opened it up to reveal the super scan. "And this is probably why."

"Let's head to the factory," Yumi suggested. "Knowing XANA, Jeremy's already there."

* * *

Thanks to the evil artificial intelligence, the virtual boy now understood what "pins and needles" felt like. And he didn't like it in the least.

He came to in William's arms as they walked across the bridge to the factory. However, he hastily shut his eyes and did his best to look as if he were still out cold, praying that XANA hadn't noticed that he was very much awake. He expected another electrical shock, and it was all he could do to not tense up in preparation for it.

But the second shock never came. Apparently, luck was on his side. Which meant he'd have the element of surprise if he could just think of something.

_Click-clunk. Whir…_He heard the elevator rising in the shaft, and that's when Lady Inspiration finally decided to smile on him.

He heard the elevator door start to clank open, so he rolled out of XANA's stolen arms and under the opening door, rolling to his feet to slam his hand against the Down button. The door re-closed itself and the elevator descended as he held his hand in place. He panted as he tried to calm his frazzled nerves.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the blue cellular phone Aelita had given him about two weeks before. He dialed her number.

"Pick up…Pick up…"

"Jeremy!"

"Aelita, am I glad to hear you."

"Where are you? XANA's activated a tower."

"I know." He stood up straight as his knees finally solidified into something resembling bone. "It had William bring me to the factory."

"We're currently in the sewers and will be there in a few minutes."

"Okay. I'll buy you some time."

"Jeremy, don't go to Lyoko by yourself," she pleaded. "And don't try to fight William. Promise me."

A reassuring smile tugged at his lips even though she couldn't see it. "I promise. I'm just going to go to the one part of the factory where XANA's going to think twice before attacking me. I'll see you in a few."

He hung up the phone as the door opened, revealing a seemingly empty room. He entered it as the black obelisk containing XANA's hardware rose from the floor.

Circling around to the other side so the shining monstrosity stood between him and the door, he heard a loud _thump_ as something landed on top of the elevator. William's possessed body dropped down through the emergency hatch.

"You want me? Try and take me."

* * *

Aelita pressed the button to call the elevator. "C'mon, c'mon, you crate! Move faster!"

"You mind if I have some fun with William while you guys take care of the tower?" the purple-clad boy asked.

"You sure, Odd?" Ulrich turned to his friend.

A nod. "Suppose he decides to do something screwy to the computer while we're all in there, huh?"

"He has a point, Ulrich. Okay, Odd. William's all yours. Just be careful."

"Roger dodger." The feline warrior of Lyoko gave a salute as the elevator finally rose to their level.

"But first let's get Jeremy. He should be in the same room as XANA itself."

The group climbed aboard as Yumi asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Think about it: XANA can't do anything in there without risk of attacking itself. It's the one safe zone in the entire factory. As long as Jeremy keeps XANA's tower between himself and William, he's fine."

They stopped at the lab where Aelita got off. She turned to them. "I'll set up the procedure. Tell me when you three are there and then I'll auto-transfer myself once you're on Lyoko."

"Right." Yumi and Ulrich nodded.

The remaining trio took the elevator down two more levels.

"Be careful here, Odd. Remember: We don't want that thing damaged either. If it gets shut down, Jeremy dies, too," the dark-haired girl cautioned.

"No problem. I'll see if I can't get William to try playing somewhere else once you're all gone."

The door opened to reveal Jeremy to their right, staying as close to the gleaming black tower as possible. William was on the opposite side, trying to judge which way to attack the other.

"Hiya!" Odd yelled, running towards the taller youth and delivering a kick to the torso. "Jeremy, go!"

The virtual boy bolted, running to the safety of the elevator where Ulrich swiftly punched the Up button.

Odd nodded firmly to himself, a pleased smirk on his face. "Okay, XANA. I'm in the mood to play. How 'bout you?"

* * *

Aelita dropped to the ground of the Polar Region and immediately stepped onto the already materialized Overboard. (She'd been meaning to program herself a vehicle for some time but had yet to come up with anything that she really liked.) To her surprise, Jeremy stepped up behind her and held on to her waist.

"The tower's just north of here. Hopefully, things won't be as bad in here as they are out there," the elf said, swallowing saliva that didn't exist.

"Regardless, we'd better hurry," the blond said as the group took off. "XANA's upgraded its victims. They can use electricity to attack now."

"Odd'll be okay. Don't worry," the samurai assured but he didn't look thoroughly convinced himself.

"Especially since right now we've got krabes to worry about," the geisha added, pointing.

As one, the elf and the boy tilted their bodies to turn sharply left to avoid a set of laser blasts. Yumi's fans buzzed through the air, striking one krabe solidly in the XANA symbol and leaving five. Ulrich revved the Overbike and roared his way beneath them, lifting his saber to cut into the belly of two before having to swerve out of the way of the third's blast.

All the while, it was all Aelita could do not to clench her fists and look absolutely useless. She dodged laser fire, using her defensive maneuvering to protect her virtual friend, but her offensive weapon could only be used twice. It was just so _frustrating!_

As she watched Yumi's fans cut through two of the three remaining krabes, something bubbled up inside of her just as her Synthesis had when she'd first been virtualized. She lifted her hand, palm outward, towards the last krabe. A pink ball of energy formed.

"Energy Field!"

The ball struck the XANA symbol, spreading the pink electricity-like energy all over the krabe's shell. It wobbled for a moment before exploding.

She stared down at her hands, pulling subconsciously into a hover (or it could've been Jeremy's doing) while Yumi and Ulrich also pulled to a halt.

"Did…Did I do that?"

"_Whoa!_ Where did _that_ come from?!" the samurai marveled, sheathing his katana.

"Um…" She looked over her shoulder to see Jeremy scratching the back of his head. "Surprise?"

"You did this?"

Cue guilty puppy face. "I remembered you saying that you felt kinda useless without a weapon, so I thought that maybe I could program something more offensive for you to use?" He sounded hopeful.

She gave him a look before angling towards the tower once more. "When this is over, remind me to hug you."

A glance back revealed a beaming smile on his face.

"Ulrich, why don't you ever program weapons for me?" the geisha teased.

"Because I suck at programming?" The samurai drew his weapon again. "Looks like you get to play with your present some more, Aelita!"

The elf gave a toothy grin as balls of energy formed on her hands. "Yay!"

* * *

Aelita might've been having a good time, but Odd definitely wasn't.

He'd managed to lure XANA up to the factory floor again but had taken a real beating in the process. At least he didn't have to worry about the evil artificial intelligence taking out a scanner or something while they were fighting.

He whirled the length of chain he'd found and wrapped it around the other's foot, yanking it out from under the possessed boy. The Lyoko warrior grinned. "Not so tough now, are ya?"

William's body stood back up as XANA—with the older boy's bare hands—snapped the chain. Groaning, Odd whirled the shortened chain again and struck out at the other.

A hand caught the chain and crackled dark purple, the bolt of electricity traveling along the metal and up the wild-haired warrior's arm.

Naturally, the boy screamed and collapsed, but the charge hadn't been enough to knock him out. Instead, he simply lie there—limps numb and useless—as XANA stood over him.

Electricity arced between possessed hands. Odd's eyes widened in horror, and he longed to be able to move away. However, his limbs refused to respond.

* * *

Jeremy leaped off of the Overboard and shifted to kestrel, dropping like a stone before swooping past two krabes and towards the tower. He shifted again and flipped in mid-air, plunging feet-first into the side of the tower.

Landing in a crouch on the lower platform, he allowed the data stream to carry him up a level. The input screen appeared as he approached it, and he placed his palm against it.

JEREMY

* * *

Twin XANA symbols gazed coldly back at Odd as he prepared himself for the worst. The hairs on his skin stood up at the electrical charge.

'_I'm really gonna die this time. Wow.'_

He'd thought that dozens of times before. And it had always sounded ridiculous when he'd reflected back on it. However, each time had always felt like the last time.

Just like this time did.

* * *

CODE

LYOKO

"Tower deactivated," Jeremy murmured with a sigh of relief, data falling down into the dark abyss of the tower as it shut down.

He tapped a few commands to open a communications line and dialed a number.

* * *

Suddenly, William went limp, the electricity dissipating. The older boy ended up face-planting right on top of Odd.

"Ow! As if my dignity wasn't hurt enough."

The wild-haired boy's cell phone went off.

Mustering all the energy he could (and pushing past the unpleasant pins and needles of death), he pulled out the mobile phone. "Hello?"

"Odd, are you all right?"

"I've been better, Jeremy. A lot better."

"I'm sorry. We were delayed by several fleets of krabes."

"No big deal."

"Uh…" William moaned.

"Uh oh…maybe it is a big deal. Sleeping Beauty's waking up."

"Who?" the virtual boy asked.

The older teen looked around, clearly confused. "Wh-Where am I? How'd I get here?"

"Um…I dunno?" Odd said.

"Odd, it's Aelita. I'm guessing William's up?"

"And confused."

"Who're you talking to? What the heck's going on?" William demanded.

Ignoring him, Aelita continued, "We're going to use a Return to the Past."

"Right, Chief. Sorry, William, but looks like you'll have to wait another day for an explanation."

"Huh?"

Odd grinned as white light swept over them. At least the bruises would be gone now.

* * *

Aelita gave a tight hug to Jeremy the second the return trip was over. Fortunately, it had deposited them right after class was finished otherwise it would've been really embarrassing. Not that it _wasn't_ strange looking to the uninformed anyway. "I _love_ my present."

The blond boy grinned, cheeks turning an interesting shade of crimson.

"I kinda wondered what you'd been up to with my laptop," Ulrich said grinning. "I guess nothing says 'true love' like a weapons upgrade."

Aelita stuck her tongue out at the brunette.

"Weapons upgrade?" Odd leaned forward. "Ya mean that's the big surprise? Man, and I didn't get to see it!"

"You were off being the big hero, Odd," Jeremy pointed out.

"Well, I _was_ rather heroic." The feline Lyoko warrior buffed his nails against his chest. "Takin' on a XANA-possessed guy all by myself…"

"Great. Now there's no living with him. Thanks, Jeremy," the samurai joked.

The quartet left the classroom and walked towards the courtyard. Yumi approached from the opposite direction, giving a wave.

"Everybody safe and sound?" the older girl asked, adjusting her backpack.

"Everybody's accounted for," Ulrich confirmed with a grin. "Though Odd just got the ego trip of the—"

"_**Incoming!"**_

A rogue soccer ball from nearby slammed into Yumi with enough force to knock her into Ulrich. Their legs became entangled and they pinwheeled their arms in a futile attempt to regain their balance. The shorter boy ended up on his back with the taller girl landing on top of him, her lips somehow connecting with his.

For a moment, nobody moved.

Aelita crossed her arms and gave a _harrumph_. "I was hoping for a camera when this happened."

_Click. Whirr…_

Everyone turned to look at Tamiya who held her camera up to her eye.

"Oh, man! Milly's gonna be so mad she missed this!" the younger girl exclaimed.

The pink-haired girl's face brightened. "Now I'm satisfied."


	4. Valentine's Day

Fragments  
By Cybra

**A/N:** At long last, the Switch version of "Saint Valentine's Day"! Enjoy! Oh, and for the record, Short Circuited is a band I made up for my novel _Tech Support_.

**Disclaimer:** _Code Lyoko_ belongs to the French.

Valentine's Day  
_Based Upon "Saint Valentine's Day"_

"You ready for tomorrow?" Odd asked, looking sideways at his roommate.

"Yeah, I think so. Hope she likes it." Ulrich fingered a piece of paper in his pocket. He'd been working for a week on it.

The third member of their group tilted his head to one side. "What's so special about tomorrow?"

"You know: Valentine's Day." The brunette paused as Jeremy continued to look confused. "We _did_ tell you about Valentine's Day, right?"

A shake of the head. "I'm guessing it's a human holiday. I read something on those a while ago."

"Uh oh…Aelita's gonna be upset," the feline warrior said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Why? Did we do something wrong?"

"Uh…not exactly." Ulrich opened the door to his and Odd's shared room. Closing it behind them once the trio had entered, he continued, "Valentine's Day is when guys generally get stuff for girls that they like."

"A lot of the girls are nice around here. Does that mean I have to obtain gifts for all of them?"

"Not that kind of like. Like like. As in _love_ like," Odd explained, slinging an arm around the other's neck.

"Love?"

"You don't know what that is?" Ulrich asked, stunned.

"It's a human emotion, right? I ran across several references to it while studying your world when I was on Lyoko, but they were mixed accounts of the phenomenon." Jeremy gazed at the floor, brow furrowed as he obviously thought back to those "accounts". "It was called both a good thing and a bad thing. It also seemed to relate to physical pleasure."

"Geh! That's not what we mean here."

"Though some guys do try to get that other meaning on Valentine's Day." Odd yelped as Ulrich elbowed him in the ribs. "What? He wanted to know!"

"Let's not have a repeat of 'Why can't the door be shut when Aelita's in the room', okay?"

"Oh. Yeah." The purple-clad boy flushed bright pink, apparently remembering the humiliation.

"You still haven't explained what you mean by love," Jeremy pointed out.

"Well…it's when you feel close to someone. Really close. And you care a lot about them and want to be with them as much as possible," Ulrich explained.

"I think I see…So Aelita will be upset because it seems like I don't care about her if I don't have anything for her."

"It's possible."

The virtual being pondered this for a few moments. "Ulrich, I don't have any money."

"You can always make something," Odd suggested. "Some girls like it when guys make them something more personal."

"Yeah. Besides, you might luck out since you made that Energy Field weapon for her. She'll probably overlook you not having anything tomorrow," the samurai warrior assured.

"Maybe." Jeremy sat in silence for a few more minutes. "Do you need your laptop for a while?"

"No, why?"

"I want to try making something. I mean, Aelita is a good friend, and I care about her very much."

"Sure thing." However, Ulrich had a feeling that his and Odd's explanation hadn't properly explained anything.

* * *

Later that night, Jeremy tapped in a modification to his calculations, studying the effects and making a quick comparison. He frowned deeply.

"Still not right…"

_Knock knock knock!_

"Huh?"

He slid off of the bed and opened the door, looking about to see no one. Glancing down, he saw a box wrapped in pink with a darker pink ribbon tied around it.

"Curious."

Picking it up, he re-entered his room, sitting down on the edge of the bed as he opened it.

A pendant dangled on a thick black cord. The polished, pale blue rock reflected the light of the laptop screen.

'_Pink paper. Aelita, maybe?'_

Setting the pendant down on his desk, he went back to work with a smile on his face.

* * *

Ulrich whistled as he slid back into his shorts and tank top after a shower, not seeing the black smoke circling behind him before diving into his ear. Crying out, he fell to the floor, dropping his towel and container of soap.

He felt cold, incredibly cold, despite all the steam in the tiled area. Every nerve ending jumped as if shocked by static electricity. All the while, there was an insistent tugging on the back of his mind.

He curled up into a ball, coughing, as he heard Odd approach him, calling his name. Forcing an eye open (when had he shut them?), he saw black smoke exit his mouth.

Coughing a little more, he looked up with wide eyes at his friend and roommate.

"Good. You're okay," Odd said, sighing with relief. "That was pretty freaky."

"You, too?"

"Yeah. Just a few minutes ago. What was that?"

"What else? XANA."

* * *

The pink-haired girl listened in alarm as Ulrich and Odd finished their story. "Let me check the super scan."

Sitting down on a bench, she pulled out her laptop and started up the program. When nothing appeared immediately, she had it run another scan, bringing a hand up to her chin.

After a few minutes…"No activated towers. XANA's attack failed."

"That's really weird," the brunette commented. "How come XANA can possess anybody but us?"

"It must have to do with sex appeal," the purple-clad boy stated, nodding his head.

The sounds of footsteps drawing near halted further conversation (and possible violence on the feline warrior). She lifted her head to see her virtual friend approach.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" Aelita teased as Jeremy approached. "You're up late."

"Sorry, I was working on something." He looked down and away. "Um…Ulrich, do you mind if I borrow your laptop for a little longer?"

"Sure thing."

"Hey, what's this?" Odd reached out to grasp a light blue stone that hung around the virtual boy's neck.

"I found it last night on my doorstep." He smiled. "I really like it. Thanks, Aelita."

The pink-haired girl felt rage bubble up inside of her. Not directed at Jeremy but whoever _had_ sent the necklace. "Actually, Jeremy, it wasn't me."

"Oh." Was that a little disappointment?

"Didn't it come with a note?" _'From a secret admirer no doubt.'_

"No, actually. The box was just sitting there. Not like this."

Aelita gaped as he pulled out a CD from his side satchel.

"'Short Circuited'. I've heard of them. They do that weird techno-rock mix thing," Ulrich commented.

"And this one came with a note?" The (literally _and _figuratively) green-eyed girl had no idea how she managed to keep her voice level.

"Uh huh. I actually wanted to ask you about it." He handed over a small piece of paper. "I didn't know what it meant."

Aelita did. Reading it over made her absolutely furious.

_Dear Jeremy,_

_Ever since you came to our school, you've been nothing but sweet and charming. (Not like the rest of the guys around here!) I'd like to spend a little time with you this afternoon around the soda machines at about 5:00. In the meantime, enjoy the CD._

_Love,_

_Your Secret Admirer_

This was _exactly_ the letter she'd thought would be with the first gift. And if Aelita ever found out who that girl was, she'd kill her.

* * *

"Any reason why you're sulking?" Yumi asked Aelita as they waited for the boys at the cafeteria table.

"I'm _not_ sulking" was the grouchy response.

The Japanese girl gave the Canadian girl a bland look. "Uh huh. Go ahead. Tell me another one. What's the problem, anyway?"

"Not much. Some girl gave Jeremy presents for Valentine's Day, and he doesn't seem to get the significance of it. I like him a lot, but he can be so clueless sometimes."

"You're only saying that because some girl got something to him before you did."

"Yeah, you're right." Aelita pouted. "I think he might go and meet up with this secret admirer of his. Though why he'd waste his time is anyone's guess."

"Secret admirer, huh?"

"Have a look."

Yumi took the piece of paper Aelita offered, scanning the brief message quickly. "Hang on. What did Jeremy get?"

"A pendant and a CD. Why didn't I think of doing something like that?" she groaned.

"Are you sure the girl who wrote this sent both?"

"…Why?"

"Because all it mentions is the CD. Look." The girl in black pointed out the last sentence.

Aelita's eyes widened as she snatched the paper out of Yumi's hand. Re-reading the small missive, she asked, "But if this girl didn't send the pendant, who did?"

"Beats the heck out of me. Could be another girl who was too shy to leave a note."

The pair looked up as Ulrich and Odd returned to the table alone.

"Where's Jeremy?" Aelita asked.

"He said he had to use the restroom real fast but he'd be back in a minute."

The Japanese girl raised an eyebrow at the pink-haired girl as she rose from the table. "You're gonna go check on him? Why?"

"Just a bad feeling."

"Sounds like jealousy talking," Ulrich said.

"Oh, shut up." The regular operator of the supercalculator left the lunchroom.

Yumi played with her glass of water. "Maybe we should keep the teasing to a minimum today. She's kinda upset about the whole Valentine's Day thing."

"Gotcha," the brunette said.

"No problem. We'll just start in on Jeremy instead," Odd said.

Yumi gave a snort before jumping a little as a hand fell on her shoulder. Looking up, she said, "Hey, William."

"Hey, Yumi. I got these for you." Giving what must've been his best charming smile, the boy extended a modest bouquet of roses her way.

"Oh, wow. William, they're beautiful."

"How about thanking me with a date?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ulrich seething. She opened her mouth to try to gently turn down the black-haired boy when Sissi chose that moment to strike.

"Oh, Ulrich. I have something for you." Eagerly, the principal's daughter held out what could only be a wrapped CD case.

"Thanks," he muttered, unwrapping it. However, his face brightened once the paper had been removed. "Great! The Subsonics' new CD!"

"They're your favorite group, right?"

"Yeah, thanks." Yumi decided she didn't like the jealous gleam in the brunette's eye as he said, "Y'know, I wrote a poem."

"Really?" Sissi looked downright gleeful. "I'd love to hear it."

The brunette pulled out a folded piece of paper and cleared his throat. "To tell you how much I flip

"It's not with a tulip.

"How I'm a victim of your charms

"And long to hold you in my arms.

"With you I never feel gloomy,

"My little uh... Sissi."

As Ulrich read, Yumi ignored the way Odd shifted uncomfortably and started elbowing his roommate in the ribs.

The second he was done, she turned to William with her answer. "Y'know what, William? I'd love to go somewhere with you."

"Well, there went a nice, quiet lunch," the purple-clad boy moaned.

* * *

Jeremy leaned over the sink, feeling dizzy. Running the faucet, he scooped up some of the cold water and splashed it on his now glasses-less face. It didn't make him feel much better.

Had he been paying attention, he would've noticed the pendant starting to crackle with electricity.

His mind seemed to tumble down a black hole. All the while, his body smoothly replaced the spectacles on his face and turned to leave.

* * *

"Aelita!" Jeremy said in surprise, smiling a little as he exited the restroom.

"Hi. Are you feeling all right?"

"Yup. Actually, I was just on my way to talk to you. I think I have an idea of where to look for more data on the antivirus in XANA's memory banks."

The pink-haired girl blinked. "You do?"

"Maybe. I mean, it could work. Do you think we could go after class to Sector Five?"

"Uh…sure. I guess."

"Thanks, Aelita." He gave her a tight hug.

She didn't notice how empty of affection it felt as the blush rose to her cheeks.

* * *

"Why are Ulrich and Yumi not speaking to each other all of a sudden?" the pink-haired girl questioned the feline warrior as they walked across the bridge towards the factory.

"They got into a fight after you left," Odd explained, rolling his eyes. "William brought Yumi flowers, and Sissi brought a Subsonics CD for Ulrich. Then Ulrich was mad because of the flowers so he read his poem for Yumi to Sissi, and Yumi decided to get back at him by agreeing to go out with William later tonight."

"So now both are sulking in their respective brooding spots. Terrific." Aelita rolled her eyes as well. "Maybe one of them will actually join us."

"We should be fine with just Odd and me," the virtual boy said, sliding down the rope just before her. "We know what to expect in Sector Five now."

"True."

Something felt off about the situation, but she couldn't put her finger on it. So she started up the transfer procedure.

"You're going to the Forest Region. Transfer Odd…Transfer Jeremy…Scanner Odd…Scanner Jeremy…Virtualization!"

A red exclamation point appeared over the virtual boy's character card.

"What the—?!" She hastily typed in commands, searching for the bug. "Odd, is Jeremy okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. Why?"

"There was some kind of glitch at transfer. I don't understand it."

"It's probably nothing," Jeremy assured. "Though we do need a ride."

"Right…" She typed in a few more commands. "One taxi, coming up."

The Overboard materialized in front of the pair.

Odd grinned. "This'll be a snap. Just a quick ride to the edge of the forest, then we take another little ride to Sector Five."

"The edge of the forest is west of you," Aelita reported. "Better get a move on before XANA realizes you're there."

"No way," the virtual boy suddenly protested. "I'm heading north."

The feline turned in surprise towards his companion. "North? Why do you want to go…?"

"Sorry, Odd." Jeremy shifted to kangaroo, jumping into the air and kicking the feline into one of the trees.

Numb, the purple-clad cat watched as the kangaroo landed as a human before leaping onto the Overboard and flying off.

"Odd! Odd! What on earth is going on?!" Aelita demanded.

"Other than Jeremy going psycho and hijacking the Overboard? Not much!" Forcing himself to his feet, Odd shook his head. "I'm gonna need another ride."

"I'll de-virtualize the Overboard right out from under him and give it back to you so you can catch up."

"Thanks."

Less than a second later, the purple vehicle appeared before its usual rider. Odd hopped up, his landing a little unsteady. _'Ooh, I'm gonna feel that tomorrow.'_

"Better hurry. Jeremy's in cheetah form and heading towards the way tower."

"Roger." He paused. "Uh oh. We have a problem."

"I see the krabes, too. And Jeremy just transported to the Polar Region. Blast it! Odd, just get to the way tower and dive right in."

"On the Overboard?"

"You should be able to."

"Okay. If you say so." The purple cat zoomed around trees, firing arrows at the mechanized creatures as he passed. Spying the way tower, he kicked in the afterburners.

Surprisingly, the Overboard passed right into the tower with no problems and zoomed along the data stream below, exiting on one of the many glaciers of the Polar Region.

"You've got to hurry, Odd. I'll call Ulrich and Yumi and get them down here right away."

* * *

"Pick up…pick up…" Aelita's fingernails rapped the plastic of the command chair's arm.

"Aelita?" Yumi said.

"Get to the factory now!" she barked.

"Wh-What's going on?"

"Apparently, that pendant of Jeremy's was a little gift from XANA. It's taken control of him, no doubt taking him right to the Scyphozoa."

"But why use a pendant?" The pink-haired girl could hear the sound of running footsteps in the background.

"Odd and Ulrich told me that one of XANA's specters attacked them this morning. However, it failed to do anything."

"So the pendant was a backup plan?"

"Most likely. Something just in case direct possession didn't work."

"Don't worry, Aelita. We'll get him back."

"Okay. I'll call Ulrich. Get down to the scanners as soon as you're here."

"Right." Then Yumi hung up.

Dialing in a new number, Aelita was surprised when Ulrich answered on the first ring. (Impressive since he tended to ignore his cell when sulking.) "Yes, Aelita?"

"Come to the factory," she ordered. "You'll be transferring to Lyoko immediately."

"Something went wrong." It wasn't a question.

"If you call XANA possessing Jeremy 'wrong', then yes. Something went wrong."

"I'm on my way."

"Good. And whatever happened with Yumi? Leave it on Earth."

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

Against the blue glaciers, the blond elk was easy to spot. Odd zoomed in and rammed into it.

The elk slid across the ice on its side before transforming back into Jeremy.

"C'mon, Jeremy. It's me, Odd!"

The virtual boy gazed menacingly at him as two new forms dropped from the sky and formed a perimeter around him.

"What're we gonna do?" Yumi asked, unfurling her fans.

"If I materialize him, I could get the pendant off. Maybe."

"Assuming he isn't XANA-fied on top of this," Ulrich added.

The virtual boy shifted to tiger, growling dangerously.

"Nice kitty…"

"Doesn't look like Jeremy has any problem with hurting us," the purple feline said, raising his hands towards the blond creature.

Red lasers fired from the sky struck each of the Lyoko warriors. Jeremy leapt at Odd and pinned him down.

Automatically, he tried to aim with his laser arrows but froze as he remembered that this wasn't one of XANA's monsters, it was a good friend who would disappear forever if he blasted him to oblivion.

In that moment of hesitation, Jeremy dug his claws into his chest and sliced into his avatar. Odd cried out as he broke apart, sent back to the real world.

One down. Two to go.

* * *

"Odd!" Ulrich yelled as he and Yumi deflected laser shots.

Jeremy paused for only a second before switching to human and running across the glacier.

"Aelita, we need backup!"

"I'm on the way! You two take out the hornets and then try to catch up with Jeremy!"

"Right!"

The samurai and the geisha stood back to back as the swarm of four hornets circled around. He glanced over his shoulder at her and nodded, sheathing his blade and leaning forward as she backflipped into the air.

He fell to one knee as Yumi landed on his back and launched herself back into the air, flinging her twin fans. Two hornets exploded, caught by surprise.

He drew his saber again, deflecting a shot back at a third hornet, while Yumi landed on the ice and caught her fans.

The last hornet dodged out of the way of a deflected shot but exploded after being encased in pink energy.

"Thanks, Aelita," Yumi said.

"Come on. The Scyphozoa's on its way."

The threesome raced across the glacier, spying the virtual boy standing in front of an ice cave.

"Oh, no!" the geisha yelled as the squid-like creature exited, wrapping its tentacles around the blond.

Not surprisingly, Jeremy didn't even attempt to struggle out of its grip.

"Super Sprint!" Ulrich raced forward and sliced into the tentacles.

As the virtual boy landed, he lied limp for a moment. However, the Scyphozoa didn't retreat, and Jeremy simply shifted to tiger again and took a swipe at the samurai.

"Hey! I'm on your side, remember?! Ah!"

Jeremy had shifted again, this time to gorilla to grab onto the sword-wielding warrior and fling him back towards the girls. He then shifted back to human as the Scyphozoa wrapped him up in its embrace once more.

"This is useless!" Yumi yelled. "He'll just keep going back."

"Unless…" Aelita formed a ball of pink energy on her hand.

"Are you nuts?!" Ulrich yelled as she hurled the attack into Jeremy's back.

"XANA wants Jeremy's memories, right?"

"Right."

"It needs Jeremy _alive_ in order to do that. It won't dare risk him."

"Are you sure about this?" the geisha readied her fans.

"No. But it's the only shot we have." Aelita formed another energy ball.

The fan sliced into the virtual boy's back just after the energy ball hit. Jeremy screamed in pain.

"For the record, I hate this idea." Ulrich sprinted forward and slashed across the other boy's back, fighting the queasy feeling in his stomach.

"So do I," the elf admitted just loud enough for him to hear. "Odd! How many life points?"

"He's got thirty left," Odd grimly replied.

The Scyphozoa lowered its victim to gently place him on the ground.

"Yes!" the samurai punched the air.

Yet it stopped before releasing Jeremy, resuming its theft.

"Spoke too soon," Yumi observed, angling her fans as she threw them. They hit the boy in the shoulder, and she bit her lip at his scream.

"Drop him. Just drop him…" Aelita pleaded.

Fortunately, the Scyphozoa decided it wasn't worth the risk. It released Jeremy and floated away.

However, none of the Lyoko warriors moved as the virtual boy sat up, hand to the side of his head.

"Wh-What's going on?" Jeremy turned to look at them. "Why're you all aiming at me?"

The elf sighed deeply with relief, lowering her hand and dissipating the energy orb she'd just summoned. "We'll tell you later."

"Uh…Aelita? If I'm reading this right, there's an activated tower…um…east of you guys."

Ulrich offered Jeremy a hand and pulled him to his feet. "Then let's deactivate it, shall we?"

* * *

"It's nice to see those two've stopped fighting. Guess all they really needed was a XANA attack to break up the tension." Odd laced his fingers behind his head before humming a little too himself.

"What was it all about anyway?" the virtual boy asked. "I don't remember a thing about this afternoon."

"It was really dumb," his pink-haired human friend answered. "One of those petty little fights."

The materialized blond tilted his head to one side, trying to process what she meant. He turned his head to look at his purple-clad human friend.

"Don't worry about it. It's all over now." Odd gave him a grin. "Besides, we still haven't figured out who gave you that CD."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." Jeremy pulled it out of his side pack. "The note said to meet whoever it was here."

He heard a quiet "hmph" from Aelita, but a glance showed only fleeting annoyance.

"Hi, Jeremy."

The trio turned to see Dana standing there, hands clasped behind her back.

"…_No,"_ Aelita growled.

"Uh…hi, Dana. What's up?"

"I just thought I'd see how you liked that CD I gave you." She grinned, leaning closer to him. "It seemed like it'd be your speed."

The virtual blond could practically _hear_ his best friend fuming behind him. He nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Actually, I didn't have time to listen to it today. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." The brunette grinned. "Just tell me what you think after you've listened to it. Regardless, how about the next time we're allowed to go off-campus we go to the music store or something?"

The phrase "between a rock and a hard place" suddenly made perfect sense to him now.

"Um…Aelita?"

A sigh. "Yes, Herve?"

He didn't know why, but the materialized AI suddenly bristled just a bit. It took all of his willpower not to turn around and face Herve as if the other boy was an attacking hornet.

However, it didn't stop him from eavesdropping as he pretended to think over the Dana's offer.

"I brought you some chocolates. The ones with the strawberry filling. Your favorite."

"Thanks, Herve. That was really…nice."

"I was just wondering if…y'know…you'd like to go to the movies next time we go off campus. Maybe have lunch together, too?"

The virtual boy wished he had his claws right now to tear the other boy's throat out.

…Wow. Where had that come from?

"Oh, no. Not again!" Odd wailed.

Again? What did the wild-haired boy mean by that?

"Sorry, Herve. I've got a lot of work for class that needs to get done. I don't know if I'll be free."

That strange, violent feeling left at Aelita's words. He looked to see Dana watching him with an expectant look on her face.

"Maybe," he said cautiously. "I don't know."

She gave him a wink. "Think about it, okay?" She turned and walked away, blowing him a kiss over her shoulder.

Turning to face Aelita (and a thoroughly depressed-looking Herve), he saw the chocolates in her hands. Suddenly, he felt bad for thinking ill of the young genius…even if the pair did grind on each other's nerves.

Not to mention—bizarrely enough—slightly inadequate.

* * *

Aelita stretched as she prepared for bed. It could've gone smoother, but at least they'd all survived Valentine's Day more or less physically and emotionally intact. (She would've liked Jeremy to have given a flat "no" to Dana, but, considering he hadn't known what to do, she'd forgive him.)

_Ding!_ Her computer alerted her to new mail.

"Who'd be writing now?" she muttered with a yawn, opening up the digital envelope.

To her surprise, it was from none other than her virtual best friend.

_Aelita,_

_I know this is really late, but I wanted to make sure it was perfect._

_Happy Valentine's Day._

—_Jeremy_

Curious, she downloaded the attachment: an executable file. Double-clicking it, she nearly panicked when her screen went black.

And then, slowly at first, pixels began lighting up her screen, moving in a circular pattern that repeated more times than she could possibly count. The various shades of lavender seemed to bloom into a gorgeous fractal representing a rose.

She placed her hand against the screen as if she could reach out to touch the virtual petals. A blush creeped up her neck as she remembered what it symbolized though she knew her virtual friend probably hadn't known that the flower actually had a meaning.1

This was definitely better than a few chocolates.

* * *

1 While a red rose means "I love you", lavender roses mean "love at first sight" or "enchantment".


	5. Study Break

Fragments  
By Cybra

**A/N:** It's been quite a while, hasn't it? I've been cussing and fussing to make this "episode" come out right. Many thanks to everyone who's commented thus far, and I'm extremely flattered by the people who said their primary complaint was that I don't update often enough. In response to that complaint, I can offer only this explanation: I'm a perfectionist. If _I_ don't like what I've written 100%, then _no one_ gets to read it until I'm happy with it.

**Disclaimer:** _Code Lyoko_ belongs to the French.

Study Break  
_Original Story_

Under ordinary circumstances, Odd della Robbia had the cheerful attitude of someone who'd had far too much sugar to eat and was only moments away from a full-blown sugar rush. Not to mention that the self-proclaimed svelte Lyoko warrior ate as if he'd never find food again. This was exactly why the group of friends noticed something was wrong with the purple-clad boy: Odd was slumped in his seat and picking at his breakfast.

"What's eating you?" Ulrich Stern asked, leaning on the table in an attempt to look his roommate in the eye.

The brunette heard Aelita Hopper giggle and mutter, "Figure of speech, Jeremy. Figure of speech."

Odd somehow drooped even more. "Principal Delmas has been talking to my parents."

The other three gathered at the table froze. The implications of that talk instantly weighed heavily on their minds.

After all, Jeremy Belpois was claiming to be Odd's cousin, here on recommendation by Odd's parents, when—in reality—that was not the case. If the della Robbias found out, there could be trouble.

"Not about Jeremy. About my grades."

The tension immediately went away, but the pink-haired girl asked with concern, "What's wrong? I thought your parents were okay with how well you do."

"_They_ are. _Delmas_ isn't." The feline warrior poked a fried egg. "He told them if I don't pull up my grades soon, there was no point in them wasting their money sending me here, so he'd have to ask me to leave. For their sakes."

The brunette boy stared, wide-eyed at his roommate. "Oh, man…"

Then the samurai warrior yelped as Odd gripped him by the jacket and jerked him towards the other boy's frightened face. "How'd you do it?! You were worse than me!"

"Hey!"

Aelita and Jeremy raised their hands.

Odd released Ulrich, blinking. "You two?"

"Ulrich got pretty much the same deal…except it was his parents," the Canadian girl explained.

"So he asked us to start tutoring him," the other blond finished.

The brunette was suddenly grabbed again, this time by the shoulders as Odd started shaking him.

"**And you didn't tell me?!"**

"Stop it, Odd! That actually kinda hurts!"

The distressed samurai saw Jeremy reach forward in an attempt to stop the feline warrior only to have Aelita hold him back. He didn't blame her, really. Nobody deserved being shaken like an oversized maraca.

Once the purple-clad boy finished venting his anger on his roommate, he turned on the other two. "Why didn't you two say anything?!"

"We did" was the response. In stereo, no less.

"Don't worry! I've got it covered!" Aelita chirped, rolling her eyes.

Jeremy rested his chin on his palm, leaning on the table. "I've been studying real hard, so it should be a snap."

Ulrich and Odd both became amused as Jeremy continued, making Aelita turn as pink as her hair, "Go spend some time with Aelita."

The blond with the purple spot gave a nervous laugh as Aelita mouthed "I will kill you", sliding a finger across her throat for emphasis.

Then the girl gave an easy, somewhat toothy, grin as the materialized AI gave her a baffled look.

"So, um…please?" came the pathetic little squeak from Odd. The purple-clad boy then glared at his roommate as Ulrich snickered.

The pair in pink and blue nodded their heads.

"Great! I owe you guys!"

Since it seemed Odd was now reassured that he'd be staying at Kadic, he proceeded to inhale his eggs with his usual gusto.

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "So much for a quiet breakfast."

* * *

Jeremy knocked on Odd and Ulrich's dorm room door, his algebra textbook and notebook tucked under one arm. His eyebrows reached towards the ceiling as he heard a highly-irritated Aelita growling but he couldn't make out her words.

The pink-haired girl threw open the door, sour look on her face. Instantly, the blond retreated a step, trying to assess the possible threat.

She looked up at him and grouched, "Your turn. Good luck."

Still unnerved, the materialized AI entered the room, jumping as Aelita shut the door with a bit more force than necessary.

This did _not_ bode well.

"Hey, Jeremy!" Odd cheerfully said, smiling from his position at his desk.

The blue-clad blond gave a weak smile before sitting on the edge of the bed. "What all do you need help with?"

"Well, I was hoping we could go over what Mrs. Mayer talked about earlier today. I didn't get it."

That didn't surprise Jeremy: He'd seen the other boy doodling instead of taking notes.

Instead of commenting, he pulled out his own notes and decided to start from the beginning. "Okay, the idea is…"

* * *

Yumi heard an electrical buzzing noise that sounded out of place on the quiet little street where she lived. She turned her head this way and that, frowning.

_Bzzt!_ The sound repeated itself for a moment before stopping.

Her frown turned into a full scowl. Electrical noises with no obvious source usually were good XANA attack indicators. Still, she hadn't received a phone call from Aelita, so everything had to be fine.

She turned her head just in time to see the thick smoke-like specter pouring out of the transformer box. She brought her hands up and fell into a battle-ready stance.

The smoke embedded itself in a stray dog that happened to wander by. The creature instantaneously turned vicious, pulling its lips back from its teeth and tensing its muscles. And not only was the dog ready to attack, the dog had grown to be very, _very_ large.

"Oh, man," she groaned just before the mongrel charged at her.

She jumped to the side, landing in a crouch. She used a side kick just as the dog passed her by, striking it solidly in the side.

With a snarl and a howl, the XANA-possessed creature landed a couple feet away. It spread its paws out as it stood, trying to regain its balance.

Yumi got up and returned to her original battle stance all in one fluid motion. Both of her fists remained at her sides, prepared to lash out. She placed her weight on her left foot so her right would be free to act if necessary.

But as the possessed creature shook its head, the specter left it, traveling back into the transformer it'd originally come from. Within seconds, the weird sound that had attracted her attention had vanished and the dog shrank back to its original size.

She stood there, jaw hanging open, as the dog shook itself, looked up at her, gave a small "woof", and then trotted away as if nothing had happened.

"Welcome to Bizarro World. Population: me."

* * *

Ulrich entered his shared dorm to see Jeremy sigh in exasperation and snap the textbook closed.

"I see no point in continuing," the materialized AI stated flatly.

"Oh, c'mon!" Odd threw the other blonde a set of soulful eyes. "I really need help with this."

The brunette silently willed himself invisible as Jeremy looked up at the feline warrior. "Perhaps, but this is a pointless exercise nonetheless. I see no reason to further waste your time and mine."

"But…"

The AI shook his head. "You may need to study, Odd, but if you're unwilling to pay attention, there's nothing either Aelita or I can do. Everything we try to 'cram' into your head won't stick. Therefore, this entire 'study session' is futile."

The purple-clad boy visibly slumped as the other blond stood, turning to see Ulrich standing there. The boy in blue shifted uncomfortably for a moment before giving a nod of acknowledgement and sliding past the brunette, closing the door behind himself as he entered the hallway.

"I can't believe he did that!" Odd complained, burying his face in his hands. "How am I supposed to pass?!"

Seeing that his roommate seemed to have missed _everything_ the AI had said, Ulrich sighed and sat down on his bed, stroking Kiwi as the dog hopped up beside him. "Odd, did it ever occur to you that he's right?"

Fingers parted to show a confused grey eye. "What're you talkin' about?"

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "You want to pass but you don't want to study. Not even those two can make you do something you don't want to do. And, unfortunately, what you _don't_ want to do is what you _need_ to do to pass."

He saw the other boy mull over this as the brunette lied back on his bed.

Shutting his eyes, Ulrich said, "I'm takin' a nap. Wake me for dinner?"

"You tell me all that and now you're gonna take a _nap?"_

The samurai yawned. "What can I say? I'm tired."

* * *

'_Maybe I was too hard on him?'_

Jeremy leaned against the back of the elevator, staring up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the rumble and whirring of the old lift taking him down to the hidden computer laboratory.

He reviewed the conversation in his mind. He'd made his point that the entire "study group" was a waste of time. After all, why allocate resources if nothing's going to get done?

Still, there must've been a nicer way to put it. Not that he could be sure. He'd only been living in the real world for a short while. Human social rules didn't make much sense, at times even acting contradictory to each other.

There was a small jolt as the elevator came to a stop, the vibration running up from the bottoms of his feet to the top of his head. As irritating as the others found that little movement, he always found it thrilling. It was another small sign that he was truly alive.

He opened his eyes and straightened up as the elevator's locking mechanism opened with a grinding _clank-clunk_. He stepped into the dimly-lit computer laboratory, surprised to see that Aelita was not alone. Yumi was also there, and the pair was bent over the supercomputer's main screen.

"Did something happen?" he asked, wandering over to the elfin warrior's side.

Aelita didn't answer right away, so he waited for details. She seemed engrossed in whatever scans she was performing.

Finally, she sighed and leaned back in the command chair, resting her cheek against her fist. "No activated towers. And the super scan didn't alert me to anything."

"XANA attacked?" he hazarded.

The frown that graced Aelita's lips was thoughtful as Yumi gave a nod.

"It possessed a dog and did its own little modifications to it." The Japanese girl shuddered, and Jeremy wondered just how bad those "modifications" had been. "It basically took a swipe at me and then gave up."

"That isn't typical XANA behavior," the AI thought aloud. "That's a waste of energy."

"A dry run for something worse, maybe?" the pink-haired girl asked.

"I wouldn't dismiss the possibility though it's unlikely. I'd think XANA's 'dry runs' would be more than half-hearted attempts like this."

Yumi raised an eyebrow. "Jeremy, you can think like XANA. Put yourself in its shoes."

The blond tilted his head to one side. "XANA doesn't have shoes."

"Figure of speech. Basically, put yourself in XANA's position. You're an evil AI out to destroy humanity fighting against four humans and what's, basically, your brother."

Blue eyes narrowed slightly. "Please don't refer to the two of us as family. It's insulting."

"Sorry. Still, why would you launch an attack but then back off?"

Jeremy closed his eyes, trying to analyze his counterpart's movements before shaking his head. "I have insufficient data to extrapolate XANA's plan of action."

There was a slight pause that he interpreted as Yumi turning to Aelita for a translation.

"We need more information in order to try and figure out what it's up to" came the expected interpretation. Apparently, he still hadn't mastered talking like a regular human being.

He opened his eyes to see Yumi frowning. "So we just…wait?"

"It's our best option. Not a _great_ option, but the best nonetheless," the pink-haired girl said, rubbing at a temple with her finger.

Gently, he pulled her hand away from the spot. "You'll make it worse," he told her kindly. "I think we have some aspirin in the first aid kit. I'll get it for you."

The pink-haired girl's cheeks turned bright red before she nodded.

Jeremy gave her a smile and went to retrieve the white box, not quite sure if he heard Aelita mutter, "Not a word, Yumi."

* * *

Odd leaned against a tree in the woods as he watched Kiwi run around. He frowned deeply to himself.

There was a science exam the next day that he had yet to study for. He'd tried talking to Aelita about it, knowing Jeremy would refuse to if the AI's little speech was anything to go by. To his surprise, she'd turned him down as well.

He groaned and slid down the tree trunk, wrapping his arms around his knees. If he failed, Delmas would kick him out. If Delmas kicked him out, he wouldn't be able to stay with his friends and help them against XANA. Didn't they _care?_

"A waste of time," he grouched leaning over so his chin rested atop his knees. "Like me being able to stay is a waste of time."

"_Odd, did it ever occur to you that he's right?"_

Ulrich's remembered words came to him unbidden. He lifted his head up in surprise, blankly watching Kiwi roll around in the dirt.

"_You want to pass but you don't want to study. Not even those two can make you do something you don't want to do. And, unfortunately, what you _don't_ want to do is what you _need_ to do to pass."_

"_You may need to study, Odd, but if you're unwilling to pay attention, there's nothing either Aelita or I can do. Everything we try to 'cram' into your head won't stick. Therefore, this entire 'study session' is futile."_

The purple-clad boy chewed his lower lip. The truth behind the whole situation was staring him in the face but he didn't want to acknowledge it. Nobody liked being wrong, and this was also true of Odd.

Still, maybe…maybe trying to pay more attention wouldn't hurt. It might even help.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when an oversized blue jay skyrocketed towards him just before the vicious little creature hit him soundly in the head with its beak. He yelped in pain as Kiwi started barking.

The bird turned and prepared to strike again, but the feline warrior dodged under the blow. As he looked up, he saw the creature's eyes glowing with a XANA symbol.

"A big bird, XANA?" he taunted, getting to his feet and preparing for battle. "Running out of ideas?"

The blue jay pulled into a hover, the specter suddenly leaving its host and disappearing. The bird squawked for a moment before flying away.

Odd stood there, dropping his fists to his sides in confusion. "What was that about?"

Whatever was going on, he knew he needed to report it immediately. That and get his head checked out with the nurse. Reaching up to touch the spot revealed it was bleeding.

Wincing at the red on his fingers, he whistled for his dog and took him back to the dorms.

* * *

The group met at the factory later that afternoon once classes had finished. It was there that the purple-clad blond gave full details of the attack since they hadn't had much time between classes.

Ulrich frowned. "And XANA just randomly gave up?"

Odd nodded, reaching up to touch the square-shaped compress tied to his head with a bandage. "It was weird. I don't think it's done that before."

"It hasn't." Aelita frowned deeply.

The materialized AI frowned as well. "First the attack on Yumi and then the attack on you. Both times XANA gave up after just a few minutes. The only difference is it managed to score a hit on you, Odd."

The supercomputer beeped for attention, and the group looked at the results.

The brunette winced sympathetically as Aelita groaned, putting her hands to her skull. "The super-scan didn't pick up anything again! What is going on?!"

"It's very possible that the super-scan has been corrupted," Jeremy stated.

The samurai stared at the blue-clad blond. "Can't you just run a scan of the super-scan?"

Immediately, he winced. Yeah, that sounded intelligent.

To his surprise, Jeremy nodded. "We can run a diagnostic scan on the super-scan but to make it thorough enough, we'll need to take the super-scan offline to ensure that the diagnostic isn't interrupted somehow by any of the super-scan's usual processes."

"How long would that take?"

"Several hours. A day at worst," Aelita said with a scowl. "The super-scan isn't particularly large, just complex. It monitors every process going through the supercomputer to determine if XANA's starting an attack. That's what allows it to alert us the second a tower's activated."

"And _that's_ not a large program?" Yumi asked, eyes wide.

Aelita shook her head. "Not really. The instructions are fairly simple. It's just making sure that they're monitoring the different processes correctly. That's where XANA could've messed with it."

"In short, these attacks XANA has been launching really _are_ just tests to ensure that its meddling is working correctly," Jeremy stated. He turned to Aelita. "You'll need to virtualize me."

"No way, Jeremy," the Japanese girl protested. "That'll leave you wide open to XANA and the Sciphozoa."

"We don't have a choice," the pink-haired girl groaned, bringing up the virtualization program. "As long as the super-scan's malfunctioning, we need some way to monitor XANA and the old tower scan can only locate the towers _after_ they've been activated. XANA knows this and is using it to its advantage. We can't trust the super-scan since it's currently unreliable, but we can't find and fix the problem until we take the super-scan offline. We certainly can't leave it as is. So Jeremy _has_ to go back." She sighed deeply and looked solemnly at her friend. "I'll start up the process."

"I'm going with him," Ulrich said.

"Yeah. We'll all take turns to keep an eye out for old Squid Face," Odd stated.

Aelita blinked in surprise but then smiled. "Thanks, guys. I'll try to do this fix as fast as possible."

The group of warriors nodded their heads as the materialized AI gave them a grateful grin.

"Hey, Ulrich. If you don't mind, I'd like to take first watch."

Everyone turned their attentions to Odd.

The brunette blinked before shrugging. "I don't mind."

"Thanks."

Aelita started tapping in commands. "You better get going, guys."

The pair nodded their heads and entered the elevator. Jeremy pressed the button, and the old lift closed its doors to them.

Yumi raised an eyebrow. "What was that about?"

Ulrich could only offer another shrug.

* * *

"Covalent bonds are when atoms steal electrons from each other and ionic bonds are where they share electrons."

Jeremy tilted his head at the non-sequitur. He turned his head just enough to get a better view of his companion. "Close, but you've got them backwards."

It then occurred to Jeremy that that had been a part of the lecture given to them by Mrs. Hertz two hours earlier. His eyes widened in surprise.

"Yeah, I was paying attention this time," Odd said, scratching at the back of his head. "Guess I didn't do so hot in remembering, huh?"

"As I said before, you were close."

The pair continued their ride in silence, heading towards two of the three scanners once the elevator released them.

He dimly heard Aelita telling them that she was about to initiate the process.

Then Odd spoke again, "Can we try again?"

Blue eyes blinked before their owner gave a smile. "Sure."

As the more excitable boy grinned hugely, the scanners slid shut, and the virtualization process started.

* * *

Ulrich walked into the tower after he'd been virtualized and allowed the data stream to carry him to the upper platform. He landed, blinking as he saw a giant 3D model of a molecule hovering in the air. "Do I want to know?"

"Just studying," Odd said with a grin. He currently leaned back on his hands from where he'd been sitting on the lower platform. "Tell me that having something like this isn't cool."

The samurai tossed a questioning glance to the blue-clad teen.

Jeremy offered him a smile and a shrug. "It was better than just sitting around waiting. Besides, Odd seems to do a lot better with visuals than just hearing someone talk."

"That's because Mr. ADD has the attention span of a gnat. The bigger and shinier it is, the easier for him to keep focused," Ulrich teased, his own grin holding no malice.

"Hey!"

Jeremy shook his head before pausing for a moment, eyes unfocused. He then shook his head. "Still looking?"

"Still looking," Ulrich agreed, figuring the virtual boy simply wanted confirmation for what he'd probably noticed from his connection to the supercomputer. "So I'm here to take Odd's place."

"Awesome," the feline said, standing and reaching up towards the ceiling as if trying to pop his shoulder blades. "I could use a break."

The 3D model vanished as Jeremy shifted in his cross-legged sitting position. "I'll see you later, Odd."

"Later!" The feline jogged to the edge and jumped down. This was shortly followed by the sound of him passing through the wall of the tower.

The samurai sat down on the platform, his legs in the same cross-legged position as the AI's. "I'm guessing you two got over your little spat from yesterday, huh?"

"Odd's serious this time," Jeremy said with firm resolve.

"Odd? Serious? We're talking about the same Odd, right?"

A laugh and a nod. "He's never going to be one hundred percent serious about anything but at least he's trying. We got off on a few tangents here and there, but it was probably a good thing to break it up a little."

Ulrich was intrigued. As far as he knew, aside from Lyoko, the two blonds had almost _nothing_ in common. "Tangents? Like what?"

"Well, you and Yumi came up as one."

"Oh yeah?" Green eyes narrowed a little.

Jeremy offered a shrug. "Odd gave up after a while since I couldn't really understand his meanings. A lot of what he was saying made no sense."

"And that's different from normal how?"

The pair stared at each other for a moment before laughing.

* * *

"You're creeping me out, Odd," Yumi said flatly. "It's like _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_."

The feline warrior didn't even look up from the textbook. "The exam's tomorrow. If I don't pass, Delmas is gonna kick me out of Kadic."

Aelita glanced up from her latest series of scans to offer a smile. "It'll be fine, Odd. Actually, I'm kind of proud of you for finally knuckling down."

"Yeah, well, I don't want to leave you guys." Odd shifted uncomfortably, still staring down at the textbook. "I mean, more than the Lyoko thing."

The Japanese girl and the Canadian girl exchanged a smile, catching his meaning.

Rather than tease him further, Yumi checked her own watch. "I'll take over for Ulrich. You guys need to get going to class."

"Right." The pink-haired girl turned back to the three screens, fingers tapping the keys lightly in complex configurations. "We'll be back to switch with you before you have to go to your test."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

Yumi jogged over to the elevator, humming to herself. The ride down and virtualization were uneventful, not that she'd been expecting trouble. XANA seemed to be biding its time. Perhaps it didn't realize that the super-scan was offline.

She mentally crossed her fingers as she stepped through the wall of the tower. "Knock knock!"

"Who's there?" Ulrich's voice sounded amused.

Her lips twitched, walking to the center of the lower platform. "Andy Green."

Jeremy's predictably baffled voice cut in, "But she's—"

"It's a joke. Andy Green, who?"

"Andy Green grass grew all around, all around," she sang as she rose to the upper platform. "Andy Green grass grew all around!"

"I stand corrected," the samurai said, rising to his feet as she landed. "It's a _horrible_ joke."

Jeremy gave each of them a blank stare. "Is human humor always this…incomprehensible?"

Yumi giggled a little at the AI. "Sorry. I guess it would seem weird to someone who didn't grow up on knock knock jokes."

"Probably a good thing." Ulrich walked towards her. "So, I'm off?"

"Yup. The other two are waiting for you."

"Awesome. See you guys later!"

"Bye!" the AI and the geisha answered as he left.

Jeremy turned back to a holographic screen, his blank look collapsing into one of concentration. The edge of his mouth twitched into a frown as he manipulated the data.

"What're you doing?"

"Reviewing past encounters with XANA. I'm trying to see if there's a clue to why it's taking this course of action."

"Anything so far?"

"Just one possibility: XANA's waiting for something."

* * *

Odd liked Gym. It was a great class to burn off excess energy accumulated while sitting around in his more boring classes. Not quite as good as dodging tarantulas on Lyoko but an acceptable substitute.

Unfortunately, that day Jim had brought out extra equipment that needed to be put away before the next class. And guess who he chose to have the honors?

Aelita glanced anxiously at her watch before she picked up two more of the large rubber balls. Her steps were hurried as she all but ran to the gymnasium to put them away. It was an admirable attempt to speed up the fetch-and-carry job.

Ulrich was pretty much the same, muttering curses under his breath as he did so.

The purple-clad teen didn't blame either of them. They should've been heading to the factory by now. And with their cell phones in their gym lockers, they had no way of contacting Yumi to let her know they were running late.

Odd doubled his pace, moving just a hair faster than his two friends. He didn't have Anticipation anymore, nor had he ever really had it while on Earth, but something was telling him that trouble was on the horizon. As he ran back to collect more of the equipment, he wished he could still see even brief glimpses of the future.

* * *

Yumi double-checked the time on the screen she'd been engrossed over. "They're late."

"Something must've held them up" was the distracted response from Jeremy.

She turned her head to look at him. "You don't think it's XANA?"

"XANA can corrupt the scans, but it can't hide its power here on Lyoko." The AI shifted more data about, not looking at her. "I'm not sensing any pulsations, so it's probably just a teacher or a fellow student who's holding them up."

"Oh." She scratched at the back of her neck, embarrassed for her paranoia.

He now turned to look at her, smiling. "Why don't you go on ahead? I'll be fine."

"You sure? I mean, the Scyphozoa…"

"I'll try not to do anything irrational. If I feel pulsations and the others aren't here yet, I'll contact you all by cell phone."

She gave him a smile of her own. "Thanks, Jeremy. I owe you one."

"I already owe you guys a lot. Consider it a small payment for my overall debt." He waved a hand in her direction, shooing her off. "I'll connect to the supercomputer to materialize you."

"Thanks."

The walls of the tower melted away to be replaced by the smooth walls of the scanner. The doors swished open just as the process of converting her from data to flesh completed.

She practically ran to the elevator and waited impatiently for it to descend. At this rate, she was going to be late.

* * *

Ten minutes. It had been ten minutes since Yumi had left. So far, the others had yet to show up.

Jeremy felt unease. While nothing had happened yet, that fact only seemed to disturb him more rather than reassure him. He could practically feel XANA's calculating patience as it waited. But waited for what? Ever since Yumi had left, it had had plenty of time to start trouble.

Eleven minutes.

On impulse, the AI reached out to one of his screens to call up the program he used to contact their cell phones. He selected Aelita's number without thinking, what he assumed to be old habit making him choose her.

Just before he executed the program and initiated the call he heard it.

_Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum._

He felt the steady thrum of power in the very core of his being. He froze, petrified, as he realized just _what_ XANA had been waiting for:

For him to be alone and without any of his protectors in the area.

It seemed so obvious. With Yumi in the middle of her test and the others who-knew-where, Jeremy was open.

Forcing his panic to the back of his mind, he executed the program, listening to the dial tone echo in the near-empty tower as it blended with the heartbeat-like sound.

"Hi, this is Aelita. I can't answer the phone right now, but if you—"

The AI cut off the call, quaking. Yumi? No, her cell phone would be on silent. Ulrich or Odd? If Aelita wasn't able to answer the phone, it was a safe better that those two couldn't.

He chewed his lower lip though he couldn't feel it. The last thing he wanted to do was to be alone right now. Once upon a time, he could handle XANA's creations without any outside aid, but now that its power had significantly increased, he wasn't feeling very confident with his odds.

After several minutes of thought, he called up the program again, typing in a message and spamming it to all four's cell phones. Hopefully, they'd see the message and come running.

In the meantime, just listening to the pulsations was driving him berserk. Even though XANA's creatures didn't seem to be able to pass through the towers, nothing could stop them from knocking them down. And perhaps it would be best to do something constructive with his nervous energy. It would keep him moving if nothing else.

Moments later, he was soaring over the Mountain Region, looking for a tower that glowed red.

* * *

The pink-haired Lyoko warrior felt her cell phone buzz in her pocket. She reached to grab it.

She had a missed call and a text message. Checking the phone's history, the number who called was blocked. This was not necessarily the factory. It could've just as easily been a solicitor.

The message, however, was definitely worth worrying about.

_SOS XANA. – J_

"We have to go," she blurted out.

Ulrich and Sissi stopped their argument, turning to look at the clearly-distressed pink-haired girl. The self-proclaimed "Queen of the Kadic" had stopped them before they could reach the park passage, and until she decided to go away, it had seemed they were trapped.

Now Aelita didn't care if Sissi attempted to follow. True, a Return to the Past would boost XANA's strength, but this was an emergency.

The brunette and the blond immediately caught on to what she was saying, especially as Odd glanced at his own phone and paled. He must've received the same message.

The trio broke into a run, racing past Sissi who shouted after them, "Where are you going?! Wait!"

"Sorry, Sissi! But we've got to go save the world!"

"What? Ahh!"

The pink-haired girl stopped and looked behind her. Her mouth hung agape.

Dogs. Probably dozens of strays were bounding towards them, all of them disturbingly large with the XANA symbol in their eyes.

Ulrich shouted at the black-haired girl, "Sissi, run! Get inside!"

The girl didn't need to be told twice, fleeing towards the cafeteria. The dogs paid her no mind, continuing towards the Lyoko Warrior threesome.

The brunette boy fell into a defensive stance. "Go on ahead! I'll catch up once I grab Yumi!"

Aelita didn't argue; instead, she bolted towards the forest area, Odd at her side.

* * *

Jeremy soared high over the floating mountains, the eagle form's eyes scanning the ground below. So far, he'd only spotted the occasional blok or kankrelot in addition to seeing the trail of circular pulsations on the ground.

Very worrisome. He would've expected this a few years ago. Not now.

An itch in the part of his mind he'd been using to stay connected to the supercomputer alerted him to someone attempting to call. He answered it wordlessly.

"Jeremy?! Jeremy, are you okay?!" Aelita's voice asked.

"I'm okay. Just doing a little aerial reconnaissance."

"Jeremy!"

"I'm safer up here than I am down here," he reasoned. "If the tower was destroyed while I was in it, I'd be in for some serious trouble."

He could practically hear her silent fuming.

In an attempt to placate her, the AI said, "I promise if I see anything, I won't rush in."

"You'd better not!"

A hint of red on the horizon caught his attention. "I think I've spotted the tower."

"Odd and I are almost to the factory. Stay where you are."

"I wouldn't dream of it." As he pulled into a hover, the familiar buzz of insect wings caught his attention. He wheeled about to see a swarm of at least fifteen hornets heading his way. "Though I might have to!"

"What's going on?"

"Can't talk. Sorry, Aelita."

He cut the connection and pulled into a dive, smoothly shifting from eagle to falcon. Laser fire flared all about him as he occasionally twisted, changing the direction of his dive. However, he saw the tarantulas waiting for him, lifting their forelegs to aim.

Desperately, Jeremy opened his wings with a _snap!_ in an attempt to regain altitude. Now facing laser fire on two fronts, he angled himself towards the edge of the rocky path. If he could just put the rock between himself and the hornets and avoid the tarantulas altogether….

Unfortunately, fate had other plans. A lucky shot struck him solidly in the back, sending him spiraling. Through the pain, Jeremy somehow found enough concentration to change shape again, exchanging the easily-damaged bird body for that of the hearty armadillo, curling up into a tight ball just before impact with the rock. He rolled along, losing concentration and shifting back to himself.

Unfortunately, his momentum from the falcon wasn't all used up as he fell over the edge. And even though he stopped in his fall, it wasn't through his own means.

Through the fading agony of the abuse he'd suffered thus far, he registered the tentacles binding him. He felt some respect of XANA, his evil counterpart having planned everything out flawlessly. But he couldn't dwell on that thought as the three tentacles hovered around his forehead, and everything became hazy.

* * *

Aelita vaulted into her command chair, eyes immediately catching the status screen that flashed red. Without a pause to even curse, her fingers flew over the keyboard to initiate the automatic transfer program along with the vehicle program.

Odd was still waiting for her as she raced back to the elevator, the pair descending with agonizing slowness.

"The Scyphozoa has Jeremy."

"How bad?"

"About a quarter of the way through. Jeremy's also down forty life points."

"Sounds like he's been getting hammered."

The elevator came to a stop and the pair literally ran to their scanners. The doors shut on them, and Aelita heard the scanner rev up around her.

Then she was no longer on Earth.

* * *

Odd fired another arrow to obliterate yet another hornet that had been trying to block their progress. Time was running out.

However, in spite of all the monsters, there was no sign of the Scyphozoa.

He maneuvered the Overboard away from the assault from the tarantulas, glancing about to ensure he wasn't about to fly into more trouble. It was thanks to this that, by pure chance, he saw a glimpse of glowing red.

"Aelita! Over here!"

He forced the nose of the Overboard down, spinning himself to make himself a harder target to hit. As he passed by the tarantulas, he fired four shots, intending to at least distract the creatures. Somehow, three shots managed to score a direct hit, destroying one of the monsters. He heard the crackle of energy behind him which was followed by an explosion. As he straightened out his flight path, the Overwing, Aelita riding it, came into view.

Once beneath the level of the path, he banked a hard right, grasping the board to keep from slipping off. As he turned about, he lifted a wrist to fire upon the Scyphozoa.

The monster tried floating away, a captive, limp Jeremy in its tentacles. The feline warrior growled and maneuvered towards the squid-like creature, intending to force it to release its prisoner by any means necessary. If he had to ram the stupid thing to convince it to let go, so be it.

At the same time, he fired arrow after arrow, forcing it to stay in about the same place. He gritted his teeth, bracing himself as he aimed himself like an oversized missile at the creature.

Unexpectedly, the tentacles ceased their glowing and released Jeremy, the AI dropping like a stone towards the Digital Sea. Fortunately, Aelita had apparently anticipated the maneuver and caught the blond, wrapping an arm tightly around him.

"Odd, let's go!" she ordered. "We're outnumbered here!"

The feline warrior opened his mouth to protest but the sound of insect wings cut him off. Instead, he moved to follow the pink-haired elf. "Yeah, I think you're right!"

* * *

Aelita laid Jeremy down on his back on the top platform of an inactive tower, instinctively brushing a lock of his blond hair out of his face. The AI's eyes were shut and he was completely unresponsive.

"Is he okay?" Odd asked.

"I think so." She placed her hands on her knees as she settled into a more comfortable kneeling position. "I think right now his systems are trying to recover. We got there kind of late in the game."

A clawed purple glove in her periphery was all that alerted her to the fact that Odd had laid a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see his grin. "Hey, don't worry. Jeremy's gonna be okay."

"Thanks." She reached up to grip his hand with her own. "That was some great flying you did back there."

"I may be awful at Chemistry, but I'd pass a flying class any day," he bragged.

She said nothing else, turning her attention back to the AI on the floor.

* * *

_The song, a variation on what he now knew to be "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", echoed from somewhere. Jeremy looked up from his homework to find himself not in his dorm room but in another room entirely. It wasn't anywhere near as plain as his dorm room, filled with posters he couldn't quite make out and knick-knacks he'd never seen before._

_It looked somewhat like one of the upstairs bedrooms of the Hermitage._

_Without thought, he abandoned his schoolwork and went out into the hallway. Yes, this was definitely the old house. The song seemed to be coming from downstairs._

_He ran down the steps, taking them two at a time, swinging himself around the corner to face a fully-furnished and clean living room. In the corner sat a piano, the player the strange old man he'd seen in past dreams._

_He moved towards the fireplace, glancing towards the pianist every so often. Reaching up, he grasped a picture frame. In it were three people, all smiling. One was the strange man, another was himself, and the third was a pink-haired woman._

"_You miss her, don't you?" came the rough voice of the pianist._

_As he turned around to ask about it, the world became dark._

_

* * *

_

Odd nearly jumped straight off the platform when Jeremy suddenly jerked into an upright position, gasping. He clutched a gloved hand over his chest. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

"Technically, you need a physical heart in order to have an attack," mumbled Aelita as she gripped the AI's shoulders. "Are you all right?"

The feline warrior was disturbed when the other blond gazed blankly at them, as if he couldn't quite figure out who they were. But before he could say anything, Jeremy closed his eyes and brought a hand up to grasp the side of his head.

"Take it slow," the pink-haired elf encouraged.

"I…I seem to be operating within acceptable parameters." Jeremy paused which Odd figured was probably him doing a self-diagnostic. "Yes. I'm fine."

"The Scyphozoa got you good," the feline warrior said. "For a while there, it looked like you weren't going to wake up."

Aelita helped Jeremy to his feet. "I want to slow down so you can get your bearings back, but right now we've got to get to the tower. Yumi and Ulrich are probably in real trouble right now."

"'Course there's only a small fleet of tarantulas and practically an Air Force of hornets out there right now." Odd gave a careless shrug. "Should be a snap, right?"

Jeremy shook his head. "We can't overpower them. We'll need to fool them."

"How? We're kind of low on options here."

Aelita tapped her foot, frowning. "A diversion? Maybe use a clone?"

"Wouldn't XANA suspect something if he just runs out there by himself?"

"Odd's right. XANA was too busy to consider that Aelita was missing the last time I cloned myself." Then his blue eyes widened before he closed them. "Unless…"

For a moment, the AI seemed to crackle, his form flickering. As he opened his mouth to voice his concern, the image of his virtual friend split, the two new images solidifying after a moment. Simultaneously, the AI and his clone opened their eyes.

"Cool!" A ropy purple tail swished back and forth.

"I think I see where you're going with this," Aelita said. "We leave the tower at the same time and split into two groups. XANA won't be able to tell if either Odd or I has the real you."

"That's the idea," the two blonds in blue responded.

"Awesome, so who gets the real Jeremy?" Odd scratched his head. "Aelita? But, then again, XANA might figure you'd go with her. Me? But maybe XANA will think that he'd go with me since we figured it would go after the one with Aelita. But if he actually went with Aelita because XANA would figure he'd go with me since he'd usually go with Aelita, wouldn't XANA—mmph!"

Aelita rubbed her temple, her free hand currently covering Odd's mouth. "Please stop. You're giving me a bigger headache than the one I had earlier."

"Actually, I was thinking—" the Jeremy on the right started.

"—that I wouldn't tell you which one was which," the one on the left finished.

The purple-clad warrior offered a muffled, "Huh?"

"That's brilliant!" The elf released the feline's mouth. "That way neither of us can give anything away even subconsciously."

"One problem though," the Jeremy on the left said.

"What's wrong?" Odd asked.

"I can't use Shapeshift like this. I mean, I could, but the clone can't," the right one said.

The left nodded his head. "Shapeshift is too complex an ability to make a copy of in such a short period of time. And if what you're said about Ulrich and Yumi is true, we don't have that kind of time."

"Okay. I'll take the one on the left," Odd said.

"Then I'll take the one on the right." Aelita reached out to take the possible clone's hand. "Since we don't know which one's which, we need to be extremely careful."

"Gotcha."

* * *

Yumi lashed out with her foot, striking one of the mongrels solidly on the nose. The animal howled in pain before snapping at her retreating appendage, its teeth grazing her boot.

She took a step back, pressing against Ulrich's back. "I'm not gonna be able to even _look_ at Kiwi for at least a week after this."

"Yeah," the brunette grunted. "At least you don't room with him and Odd."

Another dog lunged, and the Japanese girl brought her hand down in a classic chop, striking it just behind the head. The possessed creature fell to the ground, stunned, as another canine came for her.

"Duck!"

Following Ulrich's command, she fell to one knee, yet another dog flying over her head to collide with her current attacker. She instantly jumped back to her feet, jerking her hand up in a block which caught another jumping animal in the chest.

They were so close to the gym entrance. If they could just get past all the dogs…

A set of vicious teeth managed to seize her foot as she kicked out again. She yelped as the dog started to shake it, sending her off-balance.

A firm hand grabbed her arm and helped pulled her free from the dog.

"Thanks, Ulrich."

"Anytime." They moved to stand back-to-back again as Ulrich wryly noted, "Well, at least things can't possibly be worse on Lyoko."

* * *

Jeremy stood behind his "driver", gripping their waist tightly as they soared towards the tower.

"How bad do you think the guards will be?" Odd asked.

"I'm not sure," he had his clone answer for him. It stood in a similar position behind its own driver. "But if the attack with the Scyphozoa was any indication, I'd expect trouble."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least two tarantulas guarding the tower," the AI said, adjusting his weight as the vehicle he rode started a turn. "If I were XANA, I'd use the hornets from earlier as well. As much as I loathe to admit it, they're superior to any of us in the air."

"Okay, so let's just try to get both of these two to the towers. Jeremy, why don't you dissipate the clone after you're in the tower? We might be able to use this strategy again in the future, and I don't want any clues as to who you ended up with," Aelita said, eyes facing forward to keep an eye on the terrain.

"Agreed," both AI and clone said simultaneously.

"And here come the hornets," Odd said, pointing.

The swarm of eight swooped in. Jeremy managed to suppress the urge to clutch at his driver more tightly. He was unable to prevent the clone from doing so, the only thing stopping its driver from giving a yelp of complaint the fact that the sudden pressure wouldn't have been felt in the first place.

"Laser Arrow!"

"Energy Field!"

A hornet that evaded the pink ball of energy was struck solidly in the wing by an arrow, spiraling out of control and slamming into one of its counterparts. The pair tumbled towards the ground, leaving Jeremy to wonder if they'd managed to recover or not.

However, he pushed the thoughts from his mind, focusing on getting his balance and the balance of his clone correct. Dividing his attention between himself and his copy was far from simple.

He yelped in pain as he was struck with a laser shot, his driver cussing lightly before pulling a sharp turn. He was momentarily disoriented, his balance and that of his clone wavering for a moment.

"Please don't do that," he mumbled at his driver, "or somebody might fall off."

"I'm doing my best."

More red laser rain poured down on them from the hornets. The two Lyoko warriors stayed their course, zooming towards the tower as fast as their vehicles could take them.

"Get ready to jump," Aelita called out.

There was a sudden, sickening dropping sensation as the Overboard was shot out from under two pairs of feet. The disorientation that followed sent a third person tumbling to the ground.

* * *

Odd stumbled as he landed, but Jeremy—or was it his clone?—slammed into the dirt, rolling. This was followed by the second Jeremy hitting the dirt. Both looked like they were about to be sick. He ran over and helped the first and then the second to their feet.

Aelita swooped down on the Overwing, angling towards a tarantula that was moving in for the kill. She leaped off at the last second, sending the vehicle into the enemy like a scooter-shaped missile, destroying both in a flurry of data. She ran to Odd and his two charges, putting a hand on one's shoulder and turning him around to study him.

"This isn't good. I think he's still wiped out from the Scyphozoa's attack."

"How long do you think we have?"

"Not long. Even less if Ulrich and Yumi are having serious problems."

"We'll make a run for it," one of the Jeremys said, clutching at the side of his head.

"It's the best we've got," Aelita said with a grim nod. "Let's go."

Laser fire fell from the sky, causing Odd to twist about and throw up a shield. The Jeremy closest to him threw him a grateful look before continuing. The one closer to Aelita threw an equally grateful look to her as she fired off a series of energy balls, successfully taking out two that had been hammering them.

All in all, it was slow going. Everything narrowed down to fire and block. The hornets seemed to sense that their target was weak and were going all out. The tarantulas further complicated the issue when the sorry little group got close enough to them.

The foursome ran forward, Odd in front with his shield up. He heard the crackle of energy as Aelita prepared a charge. He went to all fours as she heard Aelita order, "Duck!"

An enormous pink ball of energy zoomed towards the tarantulas, engulfing two and obliterating them. The remaining tarantulas paused in their attack only to dodge, swiftly returning to their attack.

Odd fired off a round of arrows as the AI and his clone made a final run for it. Smaller pink balls of energy joined the arrows as the elf, stumbling a little, joined him. The tarantulas were so busy attempting to dodge the onslaught that the two Jeremys were able to reach the tower.

Unfortunately, just as they were about to pass through the wall, a lone hornet that they'd all somehow missed opened fire. Volley after volley from the lone winged creature struck at the AI and his clone. As they passed through, there was a flurry of data, the signal of deletion.

The feline lashed out on the winged minion of XANA, destroying it before finishing off his last tarantula. He heard another explosion as Aelita finished off her targets.

They stared silently at the tower, terrified of entering.

"Jeremy made it, right?" he asked, desperate. "I mean, it was the clone that got deleted, not him?"

"We're going to find out."

* * *

Yumi clutched at the dog that had pounced on Ulrich, grabbing it around its neck and trying to pull it off using strength born of desperation. Its snarling fangs were poised over Ulrich's neck, the only other thing holding it back was the brunette's own attempts to shove the canine off.

A set of teeth seized her leg, sinking in deeply. Involuntarily, she screamed in agony, releasing the dog that was attacking Ulrich. She could barely make out the creature's teeth moving in for the kill as a white wall of pain blocked her vision.

* * *

Ulrich had squeezed his eyes at the last minute, not wanting to see XANA-enhanced teeth biting into him. To his surprise, the weight had disappeared off of his chest. In fact, if he didn't know better, he could've sworn he was _standing._

Cautiously, he opened his eyes to see himself doing just that in the lab beneath the factory like he had hours before. His mouth gaped as he realized that—while he'd come dangerously close to meeting his maker—he'd once again survived.

Yumi fell to her knees with a _thump,_ her own eyes wide with relief. She reached out to touch one of her legs, and he supposed she was involuntarily checking for lasting damage. However, nothing was wrong, the fabric covering her legs still whole.

Odd and Aelita looked equally wiped out. The battle on Lyoko must've been brutal if they were that exhausted.

Then it occurred to him. "Where's Jeremy?"

The two by the computer exchanged a glance before Aelita picked up her headset and started running her fingers across the keyboard. Her voice was noticeably choked as she called, "Jeremy? Are you there?"

When no answer came, Aelita tried again, "Jeremy, can you hear me?"

Again, no answer.

* * *

Aelita's eyes began to sting. It was possible that her virtual friend had sent final instructions to his clone to shut down the tower and initiate a Return to the Past as a precaution when the hornet's final assault had started. She didn't want to believe it, but it was possible.

She typed in the commands to look up his profile, petrified that she wouldn't find it. Her finger hovered over the Enter key as she hesitated.

The pink-haired girl didn't have to look. The elevator ground its way open and a thoroughly exhausted AI stumbled out, catching himself against the wall and lowering himself to the floor.

She was out of her seat and by his side before she even fully acknowledged that he was all right, wrapping her arms around him and giving him a tight hug. "You're okay," she choked out as tears started falling. "You're okay."

"One more hit would've done it," Jeremy mumbled, leaning into her. "Hit the clone instead."

"That was way too close," Odd said, sounding shell-shocked. "Way too close."

Aelita nodded, still holding on to the materialized AI for dear life. Nobody moved or said anything else for quite some time, not even when Jeremy fell asleep in her arms.

* * *

The feline warrior of Lyoko bounced merrily up to his friends, holding up his test. "C-plus! I passed!"

"Way to go, Odd!" Yumi praised, crossing her arms with a smile on her face. "See what studying does?"

"Yeah, yeah. But still! I passed, so I can stay here at Kadic." He gave a huge grin in their direction. "You should've seen Delmas's face."

"Kinda jealous I didn't," Ulrich said, leaning against the bench his friends had gathered around.

Odd simply grinned before turning his full attention to the subdued AI. "So, who were you with?"

Jeremy jerked his head up. "Huh?"

"When you cloned yourself, who were you with? I still haven't been able to figure it out. Not even when you both hit the dirt."

"Say what?" his roommate asked.

"Jeremy cloned himself but didn't tell us which of us had the real him in order to throw off XANA," Aelita explained. She turned to her clearly distracted friend. "So, who was it? I'm kind of curious myself."

"Oh." Jeremy toed the dirt, staring down at his feet. "I was with Odd at first, but when we started on foot, I kinda floated back and forth between the two of you. You guys were paying so much attention to the hornets and the tarantulas, you must not've noticed."

"Nice." Ulrich leaned over and poked him in the back of the neck. "So what's eating you?"

The AI flinched at the touch but replied, "Can you all do me a favor?"

"Sure."

"Can you think over whether or not you want to continue with all of this tonight?" He held up a hand, looking up at them, as they started to speak at once. "I mean it. Think it over tonight and get back to me tomorrow."

"Jeremy, what on earth—" Aelita began.

"Ulrich and Yumi almost died yesterday. And if it hadn't been by pure luck that the clone got hit instead of me, they would've. And, guaranteed, XANA wouldn't have let you and Odd live too long after it." The AI stood, turning to face them for a second. "I don't want to force you to go any farther if you don't want to."

"Hey, we've been through dangerous stuff before that came close to killing us," Odd protested.

"And I don't want to see it happen anymore. I'd prefer living in the oblivion of a shut down supercomputer than being responsible for your deaths."

Aelita held up her hand as Odd started to speak again. "Okay. We'll get back to you tomorrow on it. But don't be surprised if it's the same answer."

He nodded.

"You want to get some dinner?"

He shook his head. "No, I think right now I just want to take a walk and think things over if you don't mind."

"Go ahead. We'll catch up later."

He walked off with a small wave, and the Lyoko Warriors turned to each other.

"Well…?" Yumi asked of their makeshift leader.

The Canadian girl turned her head to watch Jeremy's retreating back. "We'll think it over, just like we told him. Yesterday must've really shaken him up between the Scyphozoa almost taking all of his memories and all of us almost ending up dead."

"The vote's probably gonna be the same," Ulrich pointed out.

"I know. But it'll probably make him feel better knowing we put some thought into it."

* * *

Jeremy sat on the bed in an upstairs bedroom of the Hermitage. He clutched his legs to his chest and rested his chin on his knees as he stared, unseeing, at the graffiti-covered walls and the overall mess of the room.

All the while, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" played in his head.


	6. Countdown

Fragments  
By Cybra

**A/N:** Upon re-reading the last chapter, I realized it wasn't as good as the others. It was good but not great. I'll try and make up for it in this one. I've spent a lot of time writing and re-writing this thing, so I hope that it all paid off.

**Disclaimer:** _Code Lyoko_ belongs to the French.

Countdown_  
Based Upon "Common Interest"_

_Yumi brought her knee up to strike one of the leaping dogs in the chin. She panted, sweat dripping into her eyes, as the XANA-controlled creature yelped, backing off for a moment. However, she had no time to check and see if the dog was down for the count or not. There were others coming at her with bared teeth. She punched one in the eye, forcing it back as it howled in pain. She spun on her right foot, lashing out with her left, but this dog managed to dodge, ducking beneath the blow. She barely had time to bring up an arm to block the next attacker, crying out in pain as teeth tore through her sleeve and raked across her bare arm._

_Too many enemies. Far too many. She couldn't even see Ulrich anymore let alone know how he was doing. And the snarls, growls, and barking blocked all other sounds._

_As she kicked with her right foot, one of her attackers caught it in XANA-enhanced teeth. Then the dog shook its head violently as if shaking a squirrel it had caught. This threw her off-balance, and she hit the ground hard. Paws pinned her down._

_She did her best to curl up into a ball, placing her arms over her head and bringing her knees to her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut._

"_Somebody, help me!" she screamed._

_But nobody came, nobody heard her. She risked a peek out between her eyelids. However, there was no life-saving white light._

"_Help!" she shrieked as jaws invaded her field of vision._

_

* * *

_

Her eyes snapped open as she finally freed herself from the nightmare. For several horrifying seconds, she couldn't move, and she wondered if it really had been a dream. She gasped for breath, still sweating.

Gentle hands pulled her into a sitting position as the last of the sandman's power released her. She immediately twisted in her mother's grip, instinctively reaching towards the comfort.

"It's all right…" the Japanese woman cooed in her ear as if she were five years old again. "You're fine. It was just a bad dream…It's over now…"

Yumi clung to her, her terror translating into tears as she sobbed into her mother's shoulder.

For it wasn't really over.

* * *

Aelita held her cupped hands under the faucet, watching as water filled them before closing her eyes and rubbing the liquid against her face. Sissi had been making snide remarks all morning about her looking like an insomniac raccoon.

"You look like how I feel," Yumi's voice muttered from behind her.

She opened her eyes and lifted her head to gaze at her best friend in the bathroom mirror. Yumi also had dark rings around her eyes and even looked a little pale. "Same to you."

"How're the guys?" the Japanese girl asked after a few moments of silence.

Normally, the older girl would've known for herself since their group tended to gather before classes. However, this morning had been different. They'd all been avoiding each other as much as possible.

"Same. I don't think anybody got any sleep last night."

Silence reigned once more before Yumi asked quietly, "You talked to Jeremy yet?"

The pink-haired girl shook her head. "No. I haven't seen him all morning. He wasn't in class."

"Maybe he went back to Lyoko."

Aelita tried to meet the eye of Yumi's reflection only to see the older girl looking away. She sighed and turned around fully. "No, I ran a scan for his location from my desktop. He's not on Lyoko. He's probably just thinking things over." She managed not to stare at the floor as she asked, "You're thinking about quitting, too?"

Yumi winced but looked back at her with confusion in her dark eyes. "What do you mean 'too'?"

The Canadian girl leaned back against the sink. "Odd brought it up this morning when we were at breakfast." She wrapped her arms around herself. "He said he's not sure he wants to do this anymore. Same with Ulrich."

"We promised…" the Japanese girl weakly argued, her tone showing that she wasn't really that gung-ho about it.

"I know." Aelita's fingers clutched at her arms. She started shaking, her eyes starting to burn as she tried to suppress tears. "I don't know what to do anymore, Yumi. I want to help him, but I'm so scared..."

The older girl wrapped her arms around her, giving the pink-haired girl a tight hug that she swiftly returned.

"I don't know what I'm going to tell him," Aelita whimpered.

"I don't think any of us do."

* * *

Jeremy struggled to open his eyes, his eyelids feeling strangely heavy. His chest hurt, and he moved a hand to rub at the sore spot. He felt dizzy and lightheaded.

When he opened his eyes, he found his world view on its side. He blinked slowly, trying to comprehend what had happened. Slowly, he pushed himself into an upright position on the old bed in a forgotten bedroom of the Hermitage.

He couldn't remember falling asleep. He supposed that wasn't unusual for humans for it had happened a few times before. As he thought about it, mind moving through molasses, his chest had hurt a bit then, too, but not to this degree. He took a few deep breaths to keep calm before shakily getting to his feet.

He checked his watch. Apparently, he'd overslept, missing his first three classes of the day entirely. He sighed and started making his way slowly back to Kadic.

The four Lyoko Warriors had met up during lunch, none of them saying anything to each other. That is, until Odd decided to break the silence.

* * *

"So, what are you guys planning to do?"

Aelita shook her head. Yumi looked away. Ulrich just stared down at his lunch.

Odd sighed and started poking listlessly at his mashed potatoes, not hungry for the second day in a row. He wondered where the materialized AI was but at the same time wished Jeremy would stay there. The longer the delay, the better.

He glanced out the window to see Jeremy walking towards the cafeteria, fist clenched over his chest. "Outta time, guys."

The foursome stood up at the same time, pausing to set their dishes and uneaten food on the conveyer belt to the dishwashers. They filed out, Odd feeling as if they were heading to the firing squad.

The fact that Jeremy had given them an out seemed to make the guilt worse instead of better.

"Jeremy? What's wrong?"

Aelita's concerned voice snapped him back to attention. Odd lifted his head to see the pink-haired girl rushing over to their friend. For the first time, Odd saw that the AI's teeth were clenched and his eyes were squeezed shut. He seemed to be gasping.

Odd raced forward to help Aelita catch Jeremy as his knees gave out, the hoarse gasping becoming more apparent now.

Ulrich and Yumi helped the pair lower Jeremy gently to his knees.

The Japanese girl asked worriedly, "XANA and the virus?"

"I don't know." Aelita gripped the sides of the materialized boy's face. "Jeremy? Jeremy, what is it?"

A crowd was starting to gather, curious as to what could possibly be going on.

Odd stood up and pointed at Emily, "Call an ambulance right now!"

She pulled out her cell phone and started dialing even as he turned back to their friend.

Without warning, Jeremy gave one last gasp before going completely limp.

Aelita's fingers flew to his neck, seeking a pulse. Her green eyes widened in horror. "Lay him flat. We've got to get his heart started again."

Yumi and Ulrich stretched him out as Aelita leaned over Jeremy, putting her ear over his mouth. She tilted his head back to open the airway. "He's not breathing…!"

Under ordinary circumstances, Odd would've teased her for pressing her lips against those of her "Prince Charming". However, there was nothing funny about her pinching his nose closed and breathing into his lungs.

Odd turned towards the gates. "I'll watch for the ambulance!"

Ulrich nodded sharply as he started to push down on Jeremy's sternum at Aelita's signal. Silently, Odd thanked Jim for covering CPR in Health, no matter how briefly.

He raced to the gates, chewing his lip impatiently as he listened desperately for the sirens.

* * *

Aelita sat in the waiting room, hands clasped so tightly together that her knuckles were turning white. Jeremy had yet to regain consciousness. They'd immediately taken him to some part of the ER that she and the others had no access to. So the group was supposed to just sit and wait. They'd been waiting for the past fifteen minutes.

She hated waiting.

"Are you the ones who came in with Jeremy Belpois?" a nurse asked as she approached, her voice somber.

Aelita felt her heart stop.

"We're them," Yumi answered for the group. "How's he doing?"

'_Don't say it,'_ Aelita pleaded silently, unable to find her voice. _'Don't say it…'_

"I'm sorry, but—"

The older girl held her as she gave a keening cry. She barely noted the regretful, helpless look on the nurse's face.

"Claire! Claire!" one of the other nurses yelled, running towards them.

The nurse turned to her colleague as Aelita simply allowed Yumi to rock her back and forth.

The second nurse stopped in front of them. "Jeremy Belpois…Don't ask me _how,_ but his heart's beating again. He's going to be all right."

The first nurse—apparently "Claire"—took a deep, relieved breath. "Thank goodness." She turned back to the Lyoko Warriors. "I'm sorry I caused you all such distress."

This time Aelita's tears were tears of joy.

* * *

Jeremy was awake, swiftly regaining lucidity after his initial confusion. Occasionally, he'd reach up to rub at his chest as if still feeling sore.

"What'd your tests say?" Ulrich asked.

The materialized AI shook his head. "Inconclusive. According to the doctors, there's nothing wrong with me."

"But your body just shut down," Yumi argued. "Something _has_ to be wrong. Maybe it's some kind of problem from the materialization process?"

"Why not XANA?" Odd argued. "I mean, it's done something like this before."

"True, but XANA—for whatever reason—needs Jeremy alive," Aelita argued, frowning deeply. "Why take the risk?"

"Maybe XANA's getting desperate?" the Japanese girl suggested. "I mean, there was yesterday's…"

Her voice trailed off, and Ulrich sensed that she, too, was having flashbacks to the dogs.

The samurai shuddered but picked up where she left off, "It seemed kind of out of character for XANA. The attack itself was…kind of rushed, like XANA was trying to attack as swiftly as possible."

"But why?" Jeremy asked. "It doesn't seem likely it'd have a time limit. Its attacks are generally better thought-out and executed. It's usually careful with its work." He paused before turning his attention to the pink-haired girl beside him. "Aelita, what were the results of the superscan's diagnostic scan?"

"Shoot! I completely forgot! I'll have to run back to my room and check."

"I'll go with you," Ulrich offered. "No offense or anything, Jeremy, but I don't like hanging out in hospitals."

The materialized blond gave a weak smile. "I'm not finding it particularly enjoyable myself."

"Well, Odd and I will keep you company," Yumi said, reaching out a hand to rub his shoulder.

"Thank you."

* * *

Aelita unlocked the door to her dorm, allowing Ulrich to slip inside before anyone noticed him. She closed the door and headed towards her computer.

For some reason, her desktop's connection to the supercomputer had been lost. Frowning, she re-established contact before tapping a few keys to bring up the diagnostic scan.

"What on Earth…?"

"What's wrong?"

She turned to look at Ulrich. "According to this, the diagnostic scan failed."

Ulrich walked over to look at the screen himself, his face showing a clear lack of comprehension. "Well, if the superscan's malfunctioning, the diagnostic scan would, too, right?"

She shook her head. "They're two separate programs just so that doesn't happen. Unless the hardware's going bad." She shuddered at that possibility. "Let me bring up the log…"

The screen flickered for a few moments before it darkened and returned to her desktop. A message box sat in the middle of her screen.

"'Connection lost'?"

_

* * *

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!_

Yumi backed away from the bed with Odd at her side, allowing the emergency medical team room to work. She reached for her cell phone, remembering belatedly that she and the others had turned off their phones in compliance with hospital rules.

She tapped Odd's shoulder. "I'm gonna go call Ulrich and Aelita. Keep an eye on him?"

The feline warrior gave a firm nod of his head.

The Japanese girl was out the door and in one of the designated cell areas in record time. She hurriedly turned on the phone and dialed Aelita's number.

"C'mon…c'mon…pick up…!"

"Yumi?"

"Aelita, Jeremy's just had another attack! You need to get here right away!"

Silence from the other end of the connection.

Yumi's grip on her phone tightened so much that she heard the plastic _creak_ in protest. "Aelita, did you hear me?!"

"Yumi, Ulrich and I are heading to the factory. We need to check the supercomputer. Keep us updated, okay?"

She started to argue until she realized the implications of that phrase. She stared blankly forward for a moment before answering, "Yeah. I'll call you back."

She cut the connection and made her way back to Jeremy's room, unseeing of the people around her. But she clearly heard the desperate work of the ER doctors, using that to guide her.

* * *

It wasn't the first time that Aelita had squeezed through the opening elevator doors in order to get to her command chair that much faster, and—with hope—it wouldn't be the last. She paused before jumping into her usual spot, eyes wide with horror at the dark screen and the shutdown holomap.

"This isn't good," she moaned, following Ulrich as he retreated back into the elevator.

The pair went down two more levels, entering the room that contained the massive tower that housed all of Lyoko along with XANA. Ordinarily, the copper panels in the overall gleaming structure would shine.

However, today it simply stood there like a silent black obelisk.

"Oh _shit,"_ Ulrich swore.

Aelita silently approved the curse, running over to move the power lever from its "on" position to its "off" position and back. The computer seemed to struggle for a moment before remaining offline.

"C'mon!" she yelled, repeating the process again.

And again.

And again.

"_**Work!"**_

_

* * *

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—Beep. Beep. Beep…_

Jeremy took several gasping breaths, and Yumi felt her knees turn to water. She leaned against the wall and slid down it as her legs failed to continue supporting her. Odd simply dropped to his knees, muttering something that sounded like a prayer.

The medical staff sighed with relief. One of the nurses glanced at the monitors.

"Heart rate has returned to normal." She turned back to her colleagues. "It's like that attack never happened."

"Let him rest for a while, and then we'll have him go through some more tests," the doctor decided, frowning. "There has to be something we missed." The man turned to the two teens. "Are you both all right?"

"We will be," Odd said with a weak grin.

Yumi jerked back to full alertness as her cell phone started ringing. She stumbled to her feet. "Sorry! Our friends went to get something for him. I'll be right back."

She made her way back down the hallway into the cell area. By that time, her phone had stopped ringing, so she dialed Aelita's number.

"How is he?" her best friend's concerned voice asked.

"Better. It seems like he'll be fine." Something beyond the normal five senses picked up a tenseness in Aelita that her voice hadn't betrayed. "What's wrong?"

There was a pause before her friend answered, "I don't want to talk about it on the phone. Can we all meet outside Jeremy's room?"

"…Okay."

* * *

"The supercomputer's nuclear battery is dying."

Aelita stared at the floor, not sure she wanted to see her friends' faces as she relayed the news. She closed her eyes for a moment, almost as if she could block out reality by doing so. Somewhere nearby, someone was watching TV, and she could distantly hear a report about an escaped convict. But that didn't matter to her at the moment. She had bigger concerns on her mind.

Odd's voice asked from somewhere beyond her eyelids, "So we get another one. What's the big deal?"

"Uranium's kind of hard to come by at your local gas station," she said. "Running the supercomputer for years along with however many Returns to the Past there've been managed to drain the nuclear battery. And there's no way we can replace it."

Yumi asked quietly, "So that's it? That's why XANA was so desperate? It knew?"

"Most likely." She re-opened her eyes to stare down at the uniform off-white tiles of the floor. "Whatever it wanted from Jeremy, it was making a last ditch effort to obtain it before the end."

Ulrich's foot stomped angrily against the tiles.

The Japanese girl murmured, "In any case, the doctors say if he keeps having these attacks, his heart could be permanently damaged."

Aelita's vision swam as tears filled her eyes. They'd been so close…He'd almost gotten to be human…

"We gotta tell him," Ulrich said grimly.

The pink haired girl nodded and reached for the knob to open the door, but she stopped just short of touching it. Her fingers clenched into a fist as she pulled her hand back, and she turned away. "I can't. Not right now."

"Aelita," Yumi said, reaching out to grasp her shoulder.

Aelita glanced back at her. "I'm just going to be a minute. You guys go on ahead inside. I'll tell him when I get back."

She expected someone to argue, but instead she heard the door open quietly behind her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Yumi lean over her. "Take as long as you need."

Aelita gave a watery smile up at her best friend before walking down the hallway. She wanted to clean herself up in the restroom. Perhaps washing her face would allow her to calm down enough to say what she needed to say. As she walked the empty hallway, she allowed herself a few more tears.

A pair of hands grabbed her from behind, one hand over her mouth. She gave a muffled scream as she was dragged backward into an emergency stairwell. She twisted and jerked in her attacker's grip, finally twisting enough to see the balding man with glasses holding her. But it was the XANA symbol in his eyes that held her attention.

'_No! Not now!'_

Her screams of pain were muffled by XANA's hand as it shocked her. The last thing she remembered was going limp.

* * *

Jeremy noticed the grim looks in his friends' eyes despite their attempts at being cheerful. The fact that Aelita was conspicuously missing confirmed what he'd begun to suspect.

As Odd opened his mouth to attempt another joke, the AI asked quietly, "There's something wrong with the supercomputer, isn't there?"

Odd's teeth snapped shut with a loud _click_. The three assembled Lyoko Warriors stared at him and shifted uncomfortably.

"Isn't there?" he repeated.

Ulrich cleared his throat before nodding. "Yeah."

"What is it?"

"Maybe we should wait until Aelita—" Odd weakly protested.

Jeremy turned his full attention to Odd. "What is it?"

Part of him honestly hoped it wasn't anything serious. But based upon his friends' behavior, it had to be. He braced himself for bad news.

The threesome glanced at each other.

Finally, Yumi was the one who told him. "The nuclear battery's dying."

Jeremy leaned forward to prop his head up in his hands, face a mask of shock. It was worse than he'd imagined. Far worse. And even with his mental preparation, the announcement left him feeling strangely cold. Was this normal for a human?

"Where's Aelita?" he managed after a few minutes of letting it sink in.

"She probably went to the restroom," the Japanese girl answered, posture now somewhat slumped. "She was going to tell you."

"Thank you for not putting her through that," he mumbled. He rubbed at his temples, trying to force _some_ warmth back into his body. Why was he so cold?

He looked up as Ulrich's hand rested itself on his shoulder. The brunet gave him a concerned look. "Are you okay?"

"…No," he finally admitted. "I'm scared. Really scared."

Odd sat down on the bed next to his feet as Yumi slid in next to him to wrap an arm around him and pull him into a hug.

"How much longer does the nuclear battery have?" he asked. What he meant was "How much longer do _I_ have?"

"Aelita's not sure," Ulrich said, squeezing his shoulder. "She ran a fast diagnostic on the supercomputer. The only thing she knows is that the time between attacks will probably decrease until we can't restart the computer again."

Jeremy mentally calculated the time difference. He didn't know when the attack the night before had happened, but there'd only been about six hours between the morning's attack and the last one. Without an accurate time comparison, he couldn't properly extrapolate a timeframe.

He shook a little. What would happen once he went offline? On Lyoko, his data would've been simply deleted. Here…here was a mystery.

Odd opened his mouth to speak when his cell phone went off. He flushed red and reached into his pocket, glancing at the screen. "It's Aelita."

"Answer it," Yumi said.

Ulrich stood up and moved towards the door. "I'll make sure none of the nurses are coming."

Odd pressed the button and held it to his ear. "Where are you?" He paused. "Okay, I'll do it." He put the phone down on the bed and hit the speaker button. "Go ahead, Aelita."

"Can everybody hear me?" Aelita's tinny voice asked.

"Loud and clear," Ulrich said from his position by the door.

"You need to get Jeremy out of the hospital immediately. He's going to have another attack soon."

"You're sure?" Yumi was alarmed.

"Positive. I'm going to be shutting down the supercomputer."

Jeremy could only stare numbly as Odd's face flushed in rage.

"We've still got time left, Aelita!" he snapped.

"We've got more left than you think," she said with confidence.

The group perked up.

"You found a way to fix the battery?!" Yumi demanded, leaning closer to the phone, her voice saturated with excitement.

"Not exactly. We have a replacement."

The group exchanged glances.

"There can't possibly be a replacement," Jeremy said practically. "None of the backup equipment had one. You made an inventory."

"I know. But XANA brought us one."

The group was now stunned.

"Right now XANA's running on the same timeframe as us," Aelita said. "It doesn't want to be shut down and it knows we don't want the supercomputer shut down."

"'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,'" Ulrich quoted.

"Right. In this case, the enemy is time. XANA took over Franz Duncan and helped him escape during his prison transfer. Turns out the prison transport had been passing close to where a shipment of uranium was coming through."

"So XANA used Duncan to steal the uranium?"

"Right. Along with a hazmat suit. Everything's ready, but the supercomputer will have to be switched off while I change the battery. XANA, obviously, couldn't do that itself." She paused. "When the computer's shut off, Jeremy's heart will stop which will bring the doctors in. You have to be out of the room by then."

Jeremy slid out of bed, careful not to disconnect the heart monitor wires. He didn't want to bring the nurses running too soon. "How long?"

"I'm giving you ten minutes."

Odd headed towards the drawer containing Jeremy's clothes while Yumi looked out the window to give the AI some privacy. "We'll be out in three."

_

* * *

Beeeeeeeeep!_

"Code blue! Code blue!"

A team of nurses and a doctor, pushing along a defibrillator, raced towards Jeremy Belpois's room. Their faces were grim. If this kept up, the boy wouldn't last another day.

But as they opened the door, they were shocked to find he was gone.

* * *

Yumi shoved thoughts of déjà vu out of her mind as she ran with Jeremy slumped on her back. At least the last time this had happened, Jeremy had been in pain but alive. She couldn't feel his breath on her neck this time as she and the boys ran towards the factory.

They'd had a stumbling moment when they'd gotten to the street. She'd been startled when Jeremy had suddenly gone limp and she had to hastily readjust her grip to keep him in place. Ulrich and Odd each had a hand on their AI friend's back to assist her.

She whispered prayers that Aelita could get the nuclear battery in place. _Fast._ Battery or no battery, the human heart could take only so much abuse or go for so long without oxygen. If the Canadian girl took too long, regardless of the computer coming back online, Jeremy would never wake up again.

* * *

Aelita carefully pulled the spent nuclear battery out of the black tower. Behind her, Franz Duncan lie unconscious on the floor. She knew that if he woke up, the convicted murderer would most likely kill her with or without XANA's help. However, she couldn't worry about that now.

She staggered for a moment as she pulled the old battery free from its slot. It was heavy. _Very_ heavy. Grunting from the strain, she set it carefully to one side. She wasn't sure how explosive it was, but she'd rather not find out due to carelessness.

Her first attempt to pick up the new battery wasn't successful. She gritted her teeth. She'd gotten this far, and she wasn't giving up. Not now, not _ever._

Readjusting her grip, she tried again, slowly lifting it and moving it into position. Once it was properly lined up, she pushed on it. For a moment, it didn't seem like the new battery would fit. Even as she panicked, she continued to push, squeezing her eyes shut and clenching her jaw, trying to move it in place through sheer force of will.

"Please…" she hissed, tears starting to escape. "Please…!"

To her elation, the battery started to move. She put every ounce of her weight on it. At first, it moved forward in jerky motions before it finally slid freely into its slot. She closed the opening and jerked the power lever into the "On" position.

_Cha-chunk! Whirrrrrrr…_Never before had the sound of that fan sounded so sweet.

Then came a groan from the other side of the room. Aelita bolted towards the elevator, slapping her hand against the button before turning to see Duncan rise to his feet, clutching a hand to his head.

When his eyes opened and glared murderously at her—missing the XANA symbol—she pressed the button five times in rapid succession, desperate for the elevator. She shrieked as she leaped out of Duncan's reach when he lunged for her. She jumped over the spent battery before kicking it backwards towards her attacker as he moved to lash out at her again.

Duncan tripped over the large cylinder, falling onto his stomach. Aelita stomped on the back of his head, viciously shoving his face into the floor as he tried to get back to his feet before moving towards the elevator again. She frantically pressed the button before an arm wrapped around her throat. She gagged and struggled. She considered pushing off from the wall with her feet to send him backwards, hopefully to the floor, but stopped just before doing so. What if he hit the tower? He could damage it!

Spots formed over her field of vision as Duncan tightened his grip. She couldn't breathe even as she gasped like a fish in her attempts. The hazmat suit didn't offer even a slight resistance to the pressure.

A dark black cloud swirled across her vision before it disappeared behind her. Duncan gave a cry and released her. Aelita fell to the floor, reaching up to grasp at her throat with one hand as she breathed in blessed oxygen.

As she looked up, she saw Duncan standing over her, his pupils replaced with XANA's signature symbol.

She braced herself for a shock and was surprised when XANA simply took the spent battery and stepped into the elevator. Its eyes were vaguely hateful, but it seemed to be restraining its impulses to kill her.

It waited, hand hovering over the button inside.

"I don't trust you."

Apparently taking this as a dismissal, XANA pressed the button, closing the door. She heard the elevator move upward.

Concerned for her friends' safety, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed quickly. Ripping off the head covering and placing the phone to her ear, she listened to it ring, chewing on her lower lip. "C'mon…c'mon…"

Someone picked up the phone. The voice was Odd's. "You've reached the hot stud hotline. Are you a first-time caller?"

If Odd was joking around…She brightened considerably, hand clutching the phone so tight that the plastic creaked. "He's okay."

She could practically hear Odd's grin. "Let me put him on."

There was some fumbling with the phone, and she pressed the button for the elevator again as she fumbled with removing the rest of the hazmat suit with one hand.

"Aelita?"

"Jeremy!"

She could hear his smile through his voice. "Yeah."

"How're you feeling?"

"Better than ever."

She stepped into the elevator when it arrived before commanding it upward. "You okay?"

"Shaken up," he admitted, "but fine. Sorry to scare you all."

"Not your fault."

"The others are meeting you in the scanner room. XANA has a tower active that I'd prefer to shut down."

"Good idea." She stopped the elevator at the scanner room, watching the three other Lyoko Warriors climb down the ladder. "I'll see you when you get here."

"Yeah. Good to hear."

She ended the call as Odd all but skipped over to his scanner. The feline warrior gave her a wink as he stepped inside. "Ready when you are!"

"Transfer: Odd. Transfer: Yumi. Transfer: Ulrich."

Aelita bounced on the tips of her toes as the scanner doors closed, not fast enough to hide the occupants' own wide smiles.

"Scanner: Odd. Scanner: Yumi. Scanner: Ulrich…Virtualization!"

The scanners hissed before reopening to show their empty interiors. A few seconds later, Jeremy climbed down the ladder, clearly having started the auto-transfer procedure.

Under ordinary circumstances, they would've just gone to an open scanner each and wait for the transfer. This time, they hesitated for a moment.

Aelita stepped forward and wrapped him in a hug which he easily returned. "I'm so glad you're okay."

* * *

Yumi watched as Jeremy straightened up to look over Ulrich's shoulder. The AI rode behind the samurai on the Overbike. "The tower's up ahead, and it looks like we have a welcoming party."

Ulrich narrowed his eyes. "A small one, too. Is this some kind of trick?"

Gathered in front of the tower was one of each of XANA's minions, minus the Scyphozoa: a krab, a kankrelot, a hornet, a blok, and a tarantula. They stood with three on each side, lining up.

"I'm not sure," Aelita admitted from where she gripped onto Yumi. Both were riding the Overwing. "XANA had the opportunity to use Duncan to kill me, but it passed on that. If it was going to attack, you'd think it'd try and take one of us out so we wouldn't be at full strength."

They slowed down, listening for the approach of more enemies. However, nothing else showed up, and none of the assembled monsters powered up their weapons to defend the red-hued tower.

Ulrich pulled to a stop. "I don't like this."

Jeremy seemed to consider this for a moment before climbing off the bike.

"Jeremy!" came the alarmed chorus of Lyoko Warriors.

"I don't think they're going to attack." He started walking toward the assembly.

Odd pulled in front of him. "Did your logic circuits or whatever get totally _fried_ after all that? They'll blast you to pieces!"

The AI looked at him. "XANA's probably weak after going through all that effort. By not killing Aelita despite having a perfect opportunity, it's almost like…it's giving us this one."

"And if you're wrong?"

Jeremy looked back at the assembled monsters which still stood passively. "If I'm wrong, I know that you guys can shoot them first."

Odd looked uncomfortably up at Aelita. Yumi had to twist her head around to see their "leader" nod her head. Sighing, the feline warrior circled around behind Jeremy, still riding the Overboard.

The AI took a deep, airless breath before walking forward, and Yumi hoped that he really _was_ right. In any case, she pulled out her fans.

As he approached, the monsters moved. He paused, tensing. The geisha heard the _click-click_ of Odd arming his Laser Arrows as she opened her fans with a _snick_. There was a crackle of energy behind her, and she could see Ulrich drawing his saber. To her surprise, the monsters were simply straightening up their lines before bowing.

"No way," she whispered, gaping.

Aelita's energy ball dissipated. She leaned forward, and Yumi leaned slightly to one side so she could see better. "They're actually going to let him _pass."_

Jeremy started walking forward again. The entire thing had the strange feeling of watching royalty passing the honored guards as he walked between their lines. Not a shot was fired as he disappeared through the tower wall.

* * *

Jeremy jerked in surprise to see himself standing in the center of the bottom platform. Only this version of himself had ashen skin and hair, the eyes behind its glasses were a bright orange. The blue tunic and leggings had been changed to shades of grey and black.

He took a step back, prepared to exit.

"Not again," XANA told him, the echoed voice flat and monotone.

Jeremy took its meaning and nodded.

XANA moved towards the edge of the platform, preparing to jump and disappear into the data stream.

"Thank you."

It turned its head to look at him before jumping off the platform, mirrored form dissolving into nothing.

* * *

One Return to the Past later, it was breakfast again. This time, however, Jeremy joined them at the table, fidgeting a bit.

Yumi leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and smiling. "Something on your mind?"

The materialized AI nodded. "Now I know how you all felt yesterday. It was…terrifying." He glanced at them. "Deletion doesn't scare me half as much as that did. At least I knew what would happen then."

Ulrich put his chin in his hand. "To be honest, not even humans are exactly sure what happens once we die." Then he held up his free hand to cut off Jeremy who'd opened his mouth to speak. "And our answer is 'no'."

The AI blinked in surprise. "No?"

"We're not going to shut down the supercomputer and just leave you to rot," Aelita clarified. "We were scared, yeah. It's been a while since we had a close call that bad." She smiled. "But today kind of put everything in perspective."

"Aelita…"

Odd slurped down the last of his cereal, smacking his lips. He then grinned and punched the AI's arm. "It would've really sucked not having you around, y'know."

Jeremy slowly smiled, grateful. He didn't know how a program like him could've earned all this. "Thank you."

The group smiled before Aelita's face turned serious.

"Uh oh. She's got that look," the purple-clad teen said.

Aelita blatantly ignored him. "One thing still bothers me."

"Shoot," Ulrich encouraged.

She turned to look at Jeremy. "What is it in your memories that would get XANA to willingly help us if only to get another shot at them?"

The AI blinked, fumbling for an answer. Finally, he said, "I don't know."

"There's gotta be something," Yumi said logically. "Maybe something your creator told you?"

Jeremy shook his head. "Impossible. I've never met him." He nodded to Aelita. "Aelita's the first real human I've ever had contact with."

"Well who switched you on?" Odd asked.

"Nobody…I think." Jeremy put a hand to his forehead, leaning forward and trying to remember. "I've always been active. Lyoko has always been there as far as I know."

Aelita paused, trying to think. "I don't get it. An algorithm maybe? A process?"

"Maybe something simpler than that."

All heads turned to Ulrich.

"It was desperate to get at Jeremy's memories yesterday, right? And then we found out the supercomputer was dying." He looked around at all of them. "If it weren't for XANA's virus, it wouldn't have been a big deal for us." He looked at the AI. "XANA's your prototype, right?"

"In essence."

"What's different between you and it? Ability-wise."

Jeremy paused, assessing the query. "XANA typically doesn't manifest itself in a physical shape unless it feels that doing so is absolutely necessary. Other than that, we're mostly identical: we both can manipulate the computer, have varying levels of shapeshifting abilities, and can generate digital constructs for tactical purposes. Functionality-wise, there's nothing really of note."

"That's not true," Aelita said quietly. "You can _leave."_

* * *

In the Forest Region of Lyoko, a tower activated. This time, it glowed white.


End file.
